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Comment on: “Summary of the development of a signature for the detection of residual dust from collapse of the World Trade Center buildings”

Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology volume 20, pages 393–394 (2010)Cite this article

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Lowers et al. (2009) (LMLL) describes a measurement method for a signature that would indicate the presence of residual dust from the collapse of the World Trade Center (WTC). Meeker, Lioy and Lippmann were members of the World Trade Center Expert Technical Review Panel (WTCETRP) which recommended that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) develop a test method for slag wool in dust to serve as the basis for a field survey designed to estimate the geographic extent of dust resulting from the collapse of the WTC. The record of the interaction with the WTCETRP is available at http://www.epa.gov/WTC/panel.

LMLL summarize the conceptual basis of the signature as: “If slag wool fiber abundances in settled dust samples do not exceed a predetermined critical level, then it is unlikely that abundances of COPCs derived from WTC dust in settled dust samples will exceed levels of concern.” but do not provide analytical support for this line of reasoning.

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References

  • Lowers H.A., Meeker G.P., Lioy P.J., and Lippmann M. “Summary of the development of a signature for detection of residual dust from collapse of the World Trade Center buildings”. J Exp Sci Environ Epidemiol 2009: 19: 325–335.

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  • Rosati J.A., Bern A.M., Willis R.D., Blanchard F.T., Conner T.L., Kahn H.D., and Friedman D. Multi-laboratory testing of a screening method for world trade center (WTC) collapse dust. Sci Total Environ 2008: 390: 514–519.

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  • US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). US EPA Response to the ‘‘Peer Review of the US Environmental Protection Agency's Final Report on the World Trade Center (WTC) Dust Screening Study’’ Appendix: A Expanded Statistical Evaluation of Slag Wool Data, December, 2006: http://www.epa.gov/wtc/panel/pdfs/appendix-a-final-summary-dec2006.pdf.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Office of Research and Development, National Center for Environmental Assessment, US EPA, Washington, District of Columbia, USA

    Henry D Kahn

  2. Region 2, US EPA, New York, New York, USA

    Dennis Santella

Authors
  1. Henry D Kahn
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  2. Dennis Santella
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Correspondence to Henry D Kahn.

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The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect US EPA policy.

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Kahn, H., Santella, D. Comment on: “Summary of the development of a signature for the detection of residual dust from collapse of the World Trade Center buildings”. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol 20, 393–394 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/jes.2009.22

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