Chinese language - Asbestos found in dust from NYC eruption

WORLD / America

Asbestos found in dust from NYC eruption

(AP)
Updated: 2007-07-20 00:35

A massive geyser of steam and debris that erupted through a midtown
Manhattan street left asbestos in the dust that settled, but city
officials said Thursday that tests indicated the air was safe.

A police officer covers his mouth as he pushes the crowd away as steam
erupts from the site of an explosion at the intersection of Lexington
Avenue and 41st street in New York, July 18, 2007. [Reuters]

The city's Office of Emergency Management said in a statement that
long-term health problems from the rupture of the 83-year-old steam pipe
and its debris were "unlikely."

Streets were still closed Thursday morning around the crater left by the
eruption near Grand Central Terminal, creating near-gridlock during the
morning rush. New Yorkers streamed down Park Avenue, some wearing masks
to filter the air as they weaved around utility trucks amid the sound of
jackhammers.

Clumps of office workers, BlackBerries in hand, huddled on corners for
word on whether their offices would open. Keith Williams, who installs
home theaters, stood at a barricade hoping to get to the tools he had
ditched a day earlier as he ran from the rumbling blast.

"I said, 'I hope that's a train,'" the 29-year-old recalled. "I didn't
know whether a building was collapsing. We heard it, and I just took off."

The eruption began shortly before 6 p.m. Wednesday, breaking windows and
rattling buildings as the pipe spewed steam, dirt and debris hundreds of
feet into the air. One woman died of an apparent heart attack, and about
30 people were injured, four seriously.

Officials quickly ruled out terrorism as the cause of the blast, but for
some witnesses, the explosion, dust and chaos were frighteningly
reminiscent of the scene on Sept. 11, 2001.

"We were scared to death. It sounded like a bomb hit or a bomb went off,
just like 9/11. People were hysterical, crying, running down the street,"
said Karyn Easton, a customer at a salon a few blocks from the site of
the blast. "It was really surreal."

City crews worked overnight to assess and repair the damage and to
determine what happened. Most subway service was restored, though most of
the trains were passing Grand Central.

On Thursday, asbestos contamination was the main lingering health
concern, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. Some of the pipes that pump steam
beneath the city to heat and cool thousands of buildings are wrapped in
asbestos, which can cause cancer and other serious illnesses with
prolonged exposure.

Area residents were urged to keep windows closed, and anyone exposed to
the falling debris was instructed to wash carefully and isolate the
clothing they were wearing in plastic bags. Eight air samples in the area
around the explosion found no sign of asbestos, but six of 10 samples of
debris and dust came back positive, the emergency-management agency said
Thursday.

City engineers also warned that up to six feet surrounding the giant hole
might be in danger of further collapse, and officials said workers would
not be allowed into office buildings in a zone that covered several
blocks.

Officials said the steam pipe might have exploded under pressure caused
by an infiltration of cold rainwater, or it might have been damaged by a
water main break.

Con Edison head Kevin Burke said the site had been inspected hours before
the blast as part of a routine response to heavy rain that flooded parts
of the city. He said crews had found nothing as they searched for steam
rising from manhole covers or cracks in the street �� indications that
pipes could be in jeopardy. The steam systems are normally inspected
every six weeks.

It was rush hour Wednesday evening when the geyser erupted, generating a
tremendous roar as 200-degree vapor sprayed as high as the top of the
nearby Chrysler Building. Steam and dirt boiled from the ground for hours.

Several people were struck by falling chunks of asphalt or rock that had
been blasted out of the ground. Mud covered others. A woman who was
bleeding heavily was helped by police while a man lay on a stretcher in
the street.

When the steam dispersed almost two hours later, a large crater was
visible in the street and a red truck lay at the bottom of the hole. Two
city buses and a small school bus sat abandoned and covered with grit in
the middle of Lexington Avenue.

The steam pipes have ruptured before. In 1989, a steam pipe explosion
near Gramercy Park killed three people and spewed loads of asbestos into
the air �� a fact that Con Ed later admitted it concealed for days while
residents were exposed.

That explosion was caused by a condition known as "water hammer," in
which water condenses in a closed section of pipe. The sudden mix of hot
steam and cool water can cause pressure to skyrocket, bursting the pipe.

Authorities Thursday couldn't immediately account for how the most
seriously wounded victims of the latest eruption were hurt. Police said
the woman who died, identified as Lois Baumerich, 57, of Hawthorne, N.J.,
suffered cardiac arrest.

She and 15 other people were taken to Bellevue Hospital, where two
seriously injured patients were being treated in a trauma unit, hospital
spokesman Stephen Bohlen said. Two other people were in critical
condition at New York Weill-Cornell Medical Center, said hospital
spokeswoman Emily Berlanstein.

Among the injured were several firefighters and police Officer Robert
Mirfield, who helped evacuate 75 people trapped in a nearby office
building by cutting open a gate, authorities said.

Top World News 

� Asbestos found in dust from NYC eruption

� S.Korea to talk with DPRK on peace

� Brazil plane crash may haunt government

� Japan nuke plant leak worse than thought

� US says al-Qaida leader arrested in Iraq

Today's Top News 

� Chinese workers feared dead in Pakistan bombing

� GDP grows 11.5% in first half year

� Russia expelling 4 British diplomats

� WHO: Food safety 'big problem' for all

� All nuclear facilities to be disabled

Most Commented/Read Stories in 48 Hours

Learn Chinese, Chinese language, Learning Materials, Mandarin audio lessons, Chinese writing lessons, Chinese vocabulary lists, About chinese characters, News in Chinese, Go to China, Travel to China, Study in China, Teach in China, Dictionaries, Learn Chinese Painting, Your name in Chinese, Chinese calligraphy, Chinese songs, Chinese proverbs, Chinese poetry, Chinese tattoo, Beijing 2008 Olympics, Mandarin Phrasebook, Chinese editor, Pinyin editor, China Travel, Travel to Beijing, Travel to Tibet