Toxins on the WTC Pile - Did Rudy Call OSHA?

It is possible that more people were injured by work on the World Trade Center disaster pile, than in the attacks themselves, all because of toxic dust they inhaled. The pulverized building materials, including asbestos, PCBs, concrete dust and a great "soup" of other materials floated in the air where people worked. Thousands working on that pile inhaled these toxins, and pay for it now, years later; some have already died. Thousands of workers and volunteers entered the clouds of toxic dust without respirators, dust masks or other Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) of any kind. Others got by with inadequate protection and suffered damaging toxic exposure as well. Why weren't we smarter about conditions on the pile, when we are the nation with the most sophisticated understanding of worker safety and protection?

On CBS 60 minutes, blame was discussed, as regards the EPA, and Christine Todd Whitman who was EPA director at the time. If they were discussing exposure of average New Yorkers in Lower Manhattan, Whitman was the one to explain, but the EPA doesn't regulate worker exposure. The federal agency with that responsibility is OSHA, the Occupational Safety & Health Administration, headed by then Assistant Secretary of Labor John L. Henshaw. The question I pose is, did those in New York handling the project request OSHA help, and did Henshaw respond. Given the political atmosphere of the time, one would expect Rudy Giuliani to seek the best help available, and get it easily. How could anyone in the US government refuse such a request just after 9/11? It would have been political suicide.

In order to learn from the failures of our 9/11 response, we better look to those in a position to protect the volunteers and workers on the pile for answers. OSHA regulators ensure safety in construction, mining, manufacture of building materials, demolition of buildings and all other industrial and construction work in the US; clearly, they had the expertise to know what protection was appropriate. So tell us, Mr. Gullianni and Mr. Henshaw, What was done to harness the formidable resources of OSHA and use their knowledge to protect the people on the pile? Why was their protection so poor that we have a secondary disaster?

Mr. Giuliani, Did you ask for advice from OSHA on how to protect workers on the pile? If so, when? Why were so many exposed to toxic injury?

Mr. Henshaw, did OSHA provide (or offer) assistance or advice on worker protection for those working to save or recover victims of the WTC disaster? Did OSHA inspectors monitor conditions in which people on the pile worked?

If any of you can shed light on this question, please post a comment. If we don't learn from such disastrous mistakes in our past, we condemn ourselves to repeat them in the future.

Ahhh the Great Toxic Smell of a New Car

That new car smell punches our buttons! It summons up memories and reminds us of our freedom and power... we love that smell of a new car! But watch out: it's the smell of VOCs - Volatile Organic Compounds, the airborne chemicals that are heavily regulated by the EPA since they help to generate ozone and photochemical smog. Want to know more? Check out this article about the adhesives, plastics and toxic paint solvents that make the new car smell we know and love.

None of these chemicals are likely to kill in concentrations present when the car gets to you, but they aren't the best compounds to breathe. If you aren't eager to lose more brain cells or stress your organs more than they are, consider driving with a window open a bit, at least for the first few weeks. Some suggest that you keep that window open for the first 6 months.

A Nose for Survival - Smell Your Way to Safety

Ahh the smell of freshly baked bread, ribs on the barbeque or a summer storm ... they grab our attention, transport us to another place and time, evoking distant memories. All because of VOCs - Volatile Organic Compounds sensed by receptors in our noses, triggering the most primative and basic of human emotional and memory responses. We carry in our noses a powerful analytical laboratory capable of spotting minute traces of organic chemicals and identifying conditions critical to our survival.

It's no accident that our olfactory sense is the one that is most powerfully linked to the emotions that trigger us to act - flight, fight, pursue food or sex. For millions of years our ancestors used this sense above all others as an early warning system to keep us safe, supplied with food and equipped for survival. Everything we breathe, eat or touch is sampled and tested when trace amounts of it pass through our noses.

The EPA monitors VOC levels in the air, and regulates industry to limit VOC emissions. This is good, as it reduces the "soup" of solvents and other toxic organic molecules that attack our lungs, membranes and skin every day. It is somewhat blind, however, as all VOCs are NOT created equal, even though they are lumped together for regulation sake. It is doubtful that many people die each year from bakery emissions, but in some regions bakery aroma VOCs are regulated just as chemical plant, body-shop and glue solvents are. In fact, everything you can smell, from roses to rotten eggs, you detect due to VOCs- airborne organic molecules that you inhale.

In our modern technocentric world we learn to ignore our noses and judge things by eye and ear; this can be our downfall. A fire in the attic, a lethal infection, a bio-terror attack, a toxic chemical accident - all these events are likely to be evident from odor before they are lethal. These things DO happen, though not every day; when they do, we won't likely see or hear them. If we pay attention to our noses, and alert ourselves to danger as our ancient ancestors did, we may well survive due to our ability to smell our way to safety.