How Toxic was Ground Zero for Rescuers?
It is no surprise that the 9/11 site in New York City was dangerous to the health of the rescuers working there. This article from Fire Engineering highlights what was found on a shirt that was worn at the site for 48 hours immediately after the attack.
The volunteer kept his contaminated shirt packed in a sealed plastic bag until last week, when The Post sent the garment to RJ Lee Group laboratories for testing.Analyzed portions of his shirt collar reveal a chilling concentration of chrysotile asbestos - 93,000 times higher than the average typically found in the environment in U.S. cities.
...
Testing also revealed the shirt was contaminated with zinc, mercury, antimony, barium, chromium, cobalt, copper, lead and molybdenum. Tons of the heavy metals were pulverized and burned in the debris in fires that raged for four months.
This shows that the rescuers who worked at the site were exposed to some really nasty stuff. The people who were caught in the initial dust cloud when the buildings collapsed were also exposed to these toxic substances.
These exposures will have some long term effects that people are just starting to understand.
This quote really got my attention:
"It is an urgent situation. If the government does not act . . . in terms of setting up [widespread] medical testing . . . more people over the next few years will die of toxic diseases than died on 9/11."
Not good.
