World Trade Center and Asbestos

The World Trade Center towers were built over four years from 1968 to 1972.  They were constructed by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and during this time, were the best known examples of tube structure architecture.  Tube buildings are formed and strengthened by closely spaced beams and columns in their outer walls.  These elements create a steel tube that, working with an inner core, can withstand the tremendous wind speeds that affect tall buildings such as the World Trade Center.

Once the initial structures of the towers were completed, the steel received a special coating.  A slurry mixture of cement and asbestos was sprayed onto the beams and columns in order to make them less vulnerable to heat.  Asbestos is a material that can withstand great amounts of heat, and for that reason, was often used in the construction of large structures as an insulator.  Right in the midst of the WTC tower construction, the spraying of asbestos and cement was banned by the York City Council.

The halting of the asbestos and cement spraying unfortunately, came a year or two late.  Hundreds of tons of the material had already been applied to the towers.  Some of the asbestos and cement was removed through an abatement program, but not enough to constitute a remaining safe level.  The beams and columns were not the only place where the asbestos was used in the World Trade Center towers.  It was used in other places in the building including pipe lines and places where the asbestos would not generally become friable and airborne.  However, under such conditions as those of September 11th, it was inevitable that the asbestos would loosen and become a harmful, airborne threat.

The airliners striking the World Trade Center towers started a “snowball effect”.  As the plane hit the tower it broke through the tubular steel wall.  This initiated the failure of the building as a whole.  The explosions, disintegration, and speed of the planes were enough to sever many of the steel interior columns that made up the inner core of the tower.  Parts of the plane, in combination with newly loose parts of the building, crashed through the plasterboard enclosed stairways.  This resulted in the exits from the upper floors being cut off from access.

When the plane passed through the structure of the tower, it collapsed the ceilings and scraped the majority of the spray-on asbestos from the steel framework of the building, creating a cloud of hazardous dust that would grow as the towers crumbled to the ground.  The steel structuring became buckled, warped, and started to collapse from the impact of the plane.  The pressure from the top floors falling onto the bottom ultimately caused the 110-story structure to collapse completely.

With the collapse of the buildings came the inevitable emission of rubble, shrapnel, and an immense cloud of dust, chemicals, and smoke that blanketed all of Manhattan.  Within the dust cloud was mercury from the thousands of light bulbs in the towers, lead from the computers, dioxin, PCBs, radioactive americium 241 from the smoke detectors, and hundreds of tons of asbestos from the destroyed piping and walls.  Experts say that the alkalinity of the cloud was equivalent to that of any dangerous household cleaner, such as Draino.  Dr. Marjorie Clarke states that the results of 9/11 were “equivalent to dozens of asbestos factories, incinerators, and crematoria-as well as a volcano.”

Despite the known dangers of the asbestos and other dangerous airborne substances that were dispersed in the air that day, the EPA wanted to cover up the fact that they were harmful to avoid public hype.  They even went so far as to ask the rescue crews, firemen, and volunteers not to wear protective gear, so as to not alarm and worry the local citizens.  Even though the EPA said that the air was safe to breath and was safe, the people of Manhattan and surrounding areas have been severely affected by the asbestos and other harmful contaminants contained in the 9/11 cloud.

More Information on the September 11 Attacks and the World Trade Center Buildings:

Main WTC Page

Asbestos Facts and EPA Information

Asbestos Levels and the Government After the Attacks

Statistics