Saturday, March 06, 2010

Dust


A new book is being published this month on the subject of the dust from the collapse of the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York on September 11th 2001.

The author, Paul Lioy, is Professor of Environmental and Occupational Medicine at Rutgers University, and an expert on air pollution and toxicity.

I expect him to confirm Steven Jones' discovery of top secret military grade magic explosives in his book.

Thanks to Big Al at JREF for pointing it out.

2 comments:

Marylander said...

Are you sure this book is going to talk about magic explosive paint? I've heard plenty of people claim that the EPA covered up the toxicity of the dust and that many people in Lower Manhattan are getting ill because of exposure to the various toxins. That, unlike magic thermite, seems completely plausible.

angrysoba said...

I don't know much about the dust issue but Paul Lioy's work has apparently been one of the major sources for understanding the toxicity of the dust from the World Trade Center and its affects on the first responders and residents.

Here's a link to his original paper, I believe. And this is a link to a follow-up study which appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Certainly if someone made a mistake in saying that the air was less hazardous than it really was or even if it was deliberately downplayed then I could believe there was a cover-up.

However, given that the author is one of the primary analysts of the dust, I would imagine that if anyone can confirm Steven Jones' findings then it would be him and his team. Although, I don't know this for a fact.

Here's an extract from the abstract of his first paper about the methodology:

Three bulk samples of the total settled dust and smoke were collected at weather-protected locations east of the WTC on 16 and 17 September 2001 ; these samples are representative of the generated material that settled immediately after the explosion and fire and the concurrent collapse of the two structures. We analyzed each sample, not differentiated by particle size, for inorganic and organic composition. In the inorganic analyses, we identified metals, radionuclides, ionic species, asbestos, and inorganic species. In the organic analyses, we identified polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) , polychlorinated biphenyls, polychlorinated dibenzodioxins, polychlorinated dibenzofurans, pesticides, phthalate esters, brominated diphenyl ethers, and other hydrocarbons. Each sample had a basic pH. Asbestos levels ranged from 0.8% to 3.0% of the mass, the PAHs were > 0.1% of the mass, and lead ranged from 101 to 625 µg/g. The content and distribution of material was indicative of a complex mixture of building debris and combustion products in the resulting plume. These three samples were composed primarily of construction materials, soot, paint (leaded and unleaded) , and glass fibers (mineral wool and fiberglass) . Levels of hydrocarbons indicated unburned or partially burned jet fuel, plastic, cellulose, and other materials that were ignited by the fire. In morphologic analyses we found that a majority of the mass was fibrous and composed of many types of fibers (e.g., mineral wool, fiberglass, asbestos, wood, paper, and cotton) .