I'm not an epidemiologist. I don't understand how epidemiologists do their work. I once read a book by Laurie Garrett, The Coming Plague, that was amazing and disturbing, in which she explained how epidemiologists tracked down the origins of ebola, yellow fever, etc.
Anyway, I looked at the 9.11 Zone. It covers everything below Canal. I don't understand how they came up with that line.
I remember on 9.11.01 a friend ringing my doorbell 30-40 times. (Though I had intended to wake up early that day to vote for Mark Green in the primary, and then pass out flyers near polling places around the East Village, I overslept.)
I buzzed in my friend, frustrated by his persistence. Before he came in through the door, he told me that the World Trade Center was gone. That was all he said. He seemed so calm. Without saying a word I turned on NY1. The buildings were still standing, which I was quick to point out to him, figuring he was exagerating. But, of course, that was a picture from earlier. The camera cut to a live shot. The buildings were gone.
I watched for another minute. In more flashback footage, I saw a couple, holding hands, leap from the building. (Until I saw the K. Burns documentary, I had not seen that kind of footage again.)
I put on my shoes and stood outside on the corner of 4th/A. Ash was falling all around me. The air was pungent.
For me, that was the moment of realization.
I remember for weeks afterward, the air remained different. There were a variety of explanations. Some said the fires were still smoldering. Others said it was the scent of decaying flesh.
Every morning started with that scent and the emotion that came with it. Now, two years later, once in a while the memory of that scent comes back to my mind.
Anyway, as far as my question goes, how did they come up with that Canal line?
I was standing on 4th/A with ash peppering my clothes, my hair, and my lungs filled with tormented air.
I've never thought much about the longterm health effects. But I did read that article in the times about smaller babies being born to women who lived in Manhattan on 9.11.
I'd prefer to go on from here not worried with thoughts of cancer 20 years from now. (I'm three weeks off of cigarettes, but that's for a different discussion thread.) But all of us breathed in that air that day.
Did all the truly damaging particles and chemicals land below Canal? If so, fine. But my recollection is different.