Local Environmental Consultant Worries

About Hazards In New York’s Dust And Debris

By Kaaren Valenta

Vernon Rohde fears the catastrophe of the disaster in New York City may be compounded by long-term health risks to the rescue workers and volunteers.

Mr Rhode, an environmental consultant who lives in Sandy Hook, has been at the scene of the disaster several times and has employees working 10- to 12-hour days in the area to measure the amount of asbestos in the air in government-owned buildings.

While air samples in those buildings have been fine, tests of debris yielded asbestos levels above those considered acceptable for human exposure, he said.

“I fear that the people who are working at the site now and their families are at risk,” Mr Rohde said. “They are covered in dust. They bring it home and expose their families.”

Mr Rohde’‘s company, S&B Environmental, LLC, works as a consultant for the General Services Administration, the agency that is the landlord for federal buildings. He was contacted on September 13 and asked to do air sampling on seven buildings located within 10 blocks of the World Trade Center.

“We started off taking air samples from inside and all turned out perfect,” he said. “Then we took bulk samples (from the debris) from the roof of one building and from the street between that building and the tower. Those results showed that the debris was an asbestos-containing material because it contained more than 1 percent asbestos. It was 4 to 5 percent.”

Mr Rohde said he sent three workers back on September 14 and 15.

“They worked 12 hours each day taking more vigorous samples, checking air filters, and checking dust on the inside and out,” he said on Tuesday, September 18. “Air samples have been very encouraging until this morning.”

Mr Rohde said a sampling test runs for six hours. “The air on the street outside one building 10 blocks from away (from the World Trade Center) was higher than what would be allowed after an (asbestos) abatement. This was during the height of traffic – from 7 am to 1 pm. The samples taken before and after (this six-hour period) were fine.”

“What concerns me is that with increased pedestrian and vehicular traffic in the area, the dust will be stirred up. It will be unacceptable for people walking in the area and working down there.”

Mr Rohde said he had given the New York City Department of Environmental Protection his bulk sample results. “They told me to call the federal EPA but I haven’t been able to get through,” he said.

He did note that after he presented his findings to the city, and also called CNN, the city sent out power-washing trucks to wash down the buildings.

In published reports in the New York Times, the official view expressed by city, state and federal health and environmental officials was that health problems from pollution would not be one of the legacies of the attacks.

But Mr Rohde said he fears that in the rush to find victims and clean up the debris, officials may be too quick to downplay the risks.

“In Gramacy Park about 10 years ago, a Con-Ed steam pipe broke,” he said. “It was coated in asbestos and the asbestos was blown into the air. The EPA closed every building in the area. Every surface in every room, apartment, and office had to be wiped down – every knickknack, windowsill and ledge.  It’s very tedious. First they used a HEPA vacuum cleaner and then a wet wipe. In a wet wipe, you take a cloth, wet it in a clean bucket of water, wipe once in one direction only, and then throw it away.

“The cleanup cost Con-Ed millions. “The questions is, was Con-Ed forced to do more than was necessary, or are the people now just not facing what needs to be done?”

Mr Rohde said the two square blocks around the World Trade Center have been totally sealed off because the damage is so widespread.

“Every building that faced the towers had severe window damage. A lot more buildings had severe damage and could be lost,” he said. “I was supposed to go into one of the buildings, at 100 Church Street, but they decided it was too dangerous.”

A chemical engineer who graduated from Syracuse University and Newtown High School, Mr Rohde worked for 10 years for an environmental company in Westchester County, NY, before forming his own consulting company in April 1998. He lives on Valley Field Road with his wife, Melinda, and their three children.

When the results of the lab tests on the debris in New York City began to come in, Mr Rohde said he grew alarmed.

‘In the nine years that we have been married, it’s the only sleepless night he had,” Mrs Rohde said.