[Federal Register Volume 69, Number 160 (Thursday, August 19, 2004)]
[Notices]
[Pages 51464-51465]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 04-19050]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[FRL-7803-3]


Sixth Meeting of the World Trade Center Expert Technical Review 
Panel and 9/11 World Trade Center Dust Health Effects Conference to 
Continue Evaluation on Issues Relating to Impacts of the Collapse of 
the World Trade Center Towers

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice of meetings.

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SUMMARY: The World Trade Center Expert Technical Review Panel (or WTC 
Technical Panel) will hold its sixth meeting intended to provide for 
greater input from individuals on ongoing efforts to monitor the 
situation for New York residents and workers impacted by the collapse 
of the World Trade Center. The panel members will help guide the EPA's 
use of the available exposure and health surveillance databases and 
registries to characterize any remaining exposures and risks, identify 
unmet public health needs, and recommend any steps to further minimize 
the risks associated with the aftermath of the World Trade Center 
attacks. The panel will meet several times over the course of 
approximately two years. These panel meetings will be open to the 
public, except where the public interest requires otherwise. 
Information on the panel meeting agendas, documents (except where the 
public interest requires otherwise), and public registration to attend 
the meetings will be available from an Internet web site. EPA has 
established an official public docket for this action under Docket ID 
No. ORD-2004-0003.

DATES: The sixth meeting of the WTC Technical Panel will be held on 
September 13, 2004, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Eastern Daylight Savings 
Time. On-site registration will begin at 8:30 a.m. Also, on September 
12, 2004, EPA, in collaboration with the New York University 
Environmental Lung Health Center/Division of Pulmonary and Critical 
Care Medicine, New York University Department of Environmental 
Medicine, Fire Department of New York, and Mt. Sinai Department of 
Community and Preventative Medicine, will co-sponsor a 9/11 World Trade 
Center Dust Health Effects Conference from 12 noon to 5 p.m., Eastern 
Daylight Savings Time. This will be a comprehensive health symposium 
entailing multidisciplinary research on the health effects of the World 
Trade Center disaster.

ADDRESSES: The WTC Technical Panel meeting on September 13 will be held 
at St. John's University, Saval Auditorium, 101 Murray Street (between 
Greenwich Street and West Side Highway), New York City (Manhattan). The 
auditorium is located on the second floor of the building and is 
handicap accessible. A government-issued identification (e.g., driver's 
license) is required for entry. The 9/11 World Trade Center Dust Health 
Effects Conference on September 12 will be held at the Rosenthal 
Pavilion in the New York University Kimmel Center, 60 Washington Square 
South, New York, NY 10012.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For WTC Technical Panel meeting 
information, registration and logistics, please see the panel's Web 
site http://www.epa.gov/wtc/panel or contact ERG at (781) 674-7374. The 
meeting agenda and logistical information will be posted on the Web 
site and will also be available in hard copy. For further information 
regarding the WTC Technical Panel, contact Ms. Lisa Matthews,EPA Office 
of the Science Advisor, telephone (202) 564-6669 or e-mail: 
[email protected]. For further information regarding the 9/11 World 
Trade Center Dust Health Effects Conference on September 12, please see 
the web site http://www.med.nyu.edu/pulmonary or contact Mr. Derek 
Grimes, Senior Research Coordinator, NYU School of Medicine, Division 
of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, at (212) 263-2315.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. WTC Technical Panel Meeting Information

    Eastern Research Group, Inc., (ERG), an EPA contractor, will 
coordinate the WTC Technical Panel meeting. To attend the panel meeting 
as an observer, please register by visiting the web site at: http://www.epa.gov/wtc/panel. You may also register for the meeting by calling 
ERG's conference registration line between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5:30 
p.m. EDST at (781) 674-7374 or toll free at 1-800-803-2833, or by 
faxing a registration request to (781) 674-2906 (include full address 
and contact information). Pre-registration is strongly recommended as 
space is limited, and registrations are accepted on a first-come, 
first-served basis. The deadline for pre-registration is September 8, 
2004. Registrations will continue to be accepted after this date, 
including on-site registration, if space allows. There will be a 
limited time at the meeting for oral comments from the public. Oral 
comments will be limited to five (5) minutes each. If you wish to make 
a statement during the observer comment period, please check the 
appropriate box when you register at the web site. Please bring a copy 
of your comments to the meeting for the record or submit them 
electronically via e-mail to [email protected], subject line: WTC.

II. Background Information

    Immediately following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on 
New York City's World Trade Center, many federal agencies, including 
the EPA, were called upon to focus their technical and scientific 
expertise on the national emergency. EPA, other federal agencies, New 
York City, and New York State public health and environmental 
authorities focused on numerous cleanup, dust collection, and ambient 
air monitoring activities to ameliorate and better understand the human 
health impacts of the disaster. Detailed information concerning the 
environmental monitoring activities that were conducted as part of this 
response is available at the EPA Response to 9-

[[Page 51465]]

11 web site at http://www.epa.gov/wtc/.
    In addition to environmental monitoring, EPA efforts also included 
toxicity testing of the dust, as well as the development of a human 
exposure and health risk assessment. This risk assessment document, 
Exposure and Human Health Evaluation of Airborne Pollution from the 
World Trade Center Disaster, is available on the Web at http://www.epa.gov/ncea/wtc.htm). Numerous additional studies by other Federal 
and State agencies, universities, and other organizations have 
documented impacts to both the outdoor and indoor environments and to 
human health.
    While these monitoring and assessment activities were ongoing, and 
the cleanup at Ground Zero itself was occurring, EPA began planning for 
a program to clean and monitor residential apartments. From June 2002 
until December 2002, residents impacted by World Trade Center dust and 
debris in an area of about 1 mile by 1 mile south of Canal Street were 
eligible to request either federally-funded cleaning and monitoring for 
airborne asbestos or monitoring of their residences. The cleanup 
continued into the summer of 2003, by which time the EPA had cleaned 
and monitored 3,400 apartments and monitored 800 apartments. Detailed 
information on this portion of the EPA response is also available at 
http://www.epa.gov/wtc/.
    A critical component of understanding long-term human health 
impacts is the establishment of health registries. The World Trade 
Center Health Registry is a comprehensive and confidential health 
survey of those most directly exposed to the contamination resulting 
from the collapse of the World Trade Center towers. It is intended to 
give health professionals a better picture of the health consequences 
of 9/11. It was established by the Agency for Toxic Substances and 
Disease Registry (ATSDR) and the New York City Department of Health and 
Mental Hygiene (NYCDHMH) in cooperation with a number of academic 
institutions, public agencies, and community groups. Detailed 
information about the registry can be obtained from the registry Web 
site at: http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/wtc/index.html.
    In order to obtain individual advice on the effectiveness of these 
programs, unmet needs, and data gaps, the EPA has convened a technical 
panel of experts who have been involved with World Trade Center 
assessment activities. Dr. Paul Gilman, EPA Science Advisor, serves as 
Chair of the panel, and Dr. Paul Lioy, Professor of Environmental and 
Community Medicine at the Environmental and Occupational Health 
Sciences Institute of the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School-UMDNJ and 
Rutgers University, serves as Vice Chair. A full list of the panel 
members, a charge statement and operating principles for the panel are 
available from the panel Web site listed above. Panel meetings 
typically will be one-or two-day meetings, and they will occur over the 
course of approximately a two-year period. Panel members will provide 
individual advice on issues the panel addresses. These meetings will 
occur in New York City and nearby locations. All of the meetings will 
be announced on the web site and by a Federal Register Notice, and they 
will be open to the public for attendance and brief oral comments.
    The focus of the sixth meeting of the WTC Technical Panel is to 
review status of a sampling and testing proposal (refined based on 
input from the July 26 meeting) to determine the geographic extent of 
World Trade Center contamination, to provide an update on the World 
Trade Center signature validation study, and also to brief the panel 
members on current public health studies related to World Trade Center 
impacts. Further information on meetings of the WTC Technical Panel can 
be found at the web site identified earlier: http://www.epa.gov/wtc/panel. Also, as noted above, on September 12, 2004, EPA and some 
members of the WTC panel will participate in a 9/11 World Trade Center 
Dust Health Effects Conference at the New York University Kimmel 
Center. This comprehensive health symposium entailing multidisciplinary 
research on the health effects of the World Trade Center disaster is 
co-sponsored by EPA, New York University Environmental Lung Health 
Center/Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, New York 
University Department of Environmental Medicine, Fire Department of New 
York and Mt. Sinai Department of Community and Preventative Medicine.

III. How to Get Information on E-DOCKET

    EPA has established an official public docket for this action under 
Docket ID No. ORD-2004-0003. The official public docket consists of the 
documents specifically referenced in this action, any public comments 
received, and other information related to this action. Although a part 
of the official docket, the public docket does not include Confidential 
Business Information (CBI) or other information whose disclosure is 
restricted by statute. The official public docket is the collection of 
materials that is available for public viewing at the Office of 
Environmental Information (OEI) Docket in the Headquarters EPA Docket 
Center, (EPA/DC) EPA West Building, Room B102, 1301 Constitution 
Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20460. The EPA Docket Center Public Reading 
Room is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, 
excluding legal holidays. The telephone number for the Public Reading 
Room is 202) 566-1744, and the telephone number for the OEI Docket is 
(202) 566-1752; facsimile: (202) 566-1753; or e-mail: 
[email protected].
    An electronic version of the public docket is available through 
EPA's electronic public docket and comment system, EPA Dockets. You may 
use EPA Dockets at http://www.epa.gov/edocket/ to submit or view public 
comments, access the index listing of the contents of the official 
public docket, and to access those documents in the public docket that 
are available electronically. Once in the system, select ``search,'' 
then key in the appropriate docket identification number.

    Dated: August 13, 2004.
William H. Farland,
Acting EPA Science Advisor and Assistant Administrator for Research and 
Development.
[FR Doc. 04-19050 Filed 8-18-04; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P