Air levels of carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons after the World Trade Center disaster

Abstract

The catastrophic collapse of the World Trade Center (WTC) on September 11, 2001, created an immense dust cloud followed by fires that emitted soot into the air of New York City (NYC) well into December. The subsequent cleanup used diesel equipment that further polluted the air until the following June. The particulate air pollutants contained mutagenic and carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). By using an assay developed for archived samples of fine particles, we measured nine PAHs in 243 samples collected at or near Ground Zero from September 23, 2001, to March 27, 2002. Based on temporal trends of individual PAH levels, we differentiated between fire and diesel sources and predicted PAH levels between 3 and 200 d after the disaster. Predicted PAH air concentrations on September 14, 2001, ranged from 1.3 to 15 ng/m(3); these values are among the highest reported from outdoor sources. We infer that these high initial air concentrations resulted from fires that rapidly diminished over 100 d. Diesel sources predominated for the next 100 d, during which time PAH levels declined slowly to background values. Because elevated PAH levels were transient, any elevation in cancer risk from PAH exposure should be very small among nonoccupationally exposed residents of NYC. However, the high initial levels of PAHs may be associated with reproductive effects observed in the offspring of women who were (or became) pregnant shortly after September 11, 2001. Because no PAH-specific air sampling was conducted, this work provides the only systematic measurements, to our knowledge, of ambient PAHs after the WTC disaster.

Fig. 1.

Aerial photograph of lower Manhattan taken on September 23, 2001, from an altitude of 3,300 feet. Ground Zero (GZ) of the WTC and four sampling sites are labeled. Site A: Park Place and West Broadway. Site B: 290 East Broadway between Reade Street and Duane Street. Site C: Trinity Place and Cedar Street. Site K: West Street and Albany Street. Photo courtesy of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Fig. 2.

Scatter plot of PAH levels (sum of nine analytes, ng/m³) versus time after September 11, 2001. Open symbols, mean values for sites A, K, and C at Ground Zero; filled symbols, site B at 290 Broadway; vertical dashed line, December 20, 2001. Curves are calculated for the summed data based on the regression model presented in Eqs. 1 and 2.

Fig. 3.

Percentages of benzo(g,h,i)perylene (open symbols) and benzo(b)-fluoranthene (filled symbols) to the total of nine PAHs (averaged over all sites) versus time after September 11, 2001. Vertical dashed line represents December 20, 2001, the date that all fires were declared extinguished. Curves represent least-squares fits of a single-compartment model to the data.