The Command Post - Global War On Terror - WTC Fallout: the Breakdown

June 03, 2003

WTC Fallout: the Breakdown

Apparently some bloke did a particle analysis on dust from the World Trade Center site. The stuff that was blowing around for a few months. The results were presented last week at the Museum of Natural History and here are one observer's notes (exactly as emailed to me):
Microscopic analysis of WTC dust by Nicholas Petraco, BS, MS, DABC, FAAFS, FNYMS at The New York Microscopic Society lecture held at AMNH 28 May 2003

45.1% Fiberglass, rock wool (insulation, fireproofing)
31.8% Plaster (gypsum), concrete products (calcium sulfate, selenite, muscodite)
7.1% Charred wood and debris
2.1% Paper fibers
2.1% Mica flakes
2.0% Ceiling tiles (fiberglass component)
2.0% Synthetic fibers
1.4% Glass fragments
1.3% Human remains
1.4% Natural fibers
trace asbestos (it became illegal to use during the construction of the WTC)

Other trace elements: aluminum, paint pigments, blood, hair, glass wool with resin, and prescription drugs were found.

NOTES:
Particles found were 1-4 micrometers in size. (In general, particles that are 5-8 microns are irritants, and those that are 104 microns are small enough to be airborne and ingested into the lungs.)

Fiberglass particles are smaller than asbestos and lodge deeper into lungs creating more serious long-term health hazards than asbestos like white lung disease which will become more evident 5, 10, 20 years from 11 Sep 2001.

Ed. Note: The validity of this study has been questioned on my own website (someone suggested it is a hoax), but I'm sure if anyone wanted to validate the study, they can contact Nicholas Petraco himself at John Jay College, where he is an adjunct professor in Applied Science. Among the many other things that he is.

Posted by michele at June 3, 2003 12:17 PM | TrackBack

Comments

i believe every bit of it.....if not more

since the WTC fell, many tests have been run secretly and in disclosure as no to spread panic in the area.

I mean......stocks are more important than little ol lung cancer.

I try not to linger in that area. Every now and then we see a movie in the theater across the street. Thats about as close as I get to those grounds.

NYC has major pollution, Midtown, DT, uptown. Not much can be done when our society is run the way it is.

Posted by: elena at June 4, 2003 11:52 AM

do we really need to know what percentage of human remains were in the dust?
isnt most dust dead human skin?
arent there alot of people in newyork?
And just living in that polluted city,, isnt that worse for your health?

Posted by: gijoe at June 4, 2003 12:00 PM

elena is a bit paranoid. People who get occupational lung disease (miners, asbestos workers, chicken farmers, salami sprayers, you name it) have dust exposures that are orders of magnitude greater than anyone got from the WTC collapse, except maybe (maybe) some of the firefighters.

The New Age health freaks and conspiracy theorists don't know or care, though. Maybe she needs a high colonic or some chelation therapy to get rid of some of those toxins the Wall Street/ Defense Department/ GOP/ WTO cabal are hiding from her.

I agree that mentioning the percentage composed of human remains is a bit sensationalistic, and not relevant to health concerns.

Posted by: PJ at June 5, 2003 02:19 AM