Chief Leader – July 21, 2015
by SARAH DORSEY
Paul J. Lioy, an environmental scientist who studied the toxins in World Trade Center dust and was one of the few to take samples of the substance in the early days after the terrorist attacks, died suddenly July 11 of unknown causes at age 68.
Mr. Lioy was the deputy director for government relations at the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute, a joint program with Rutgers University and the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. He directed the institute’s program in exposure science, a field that examines human interactions with outside chemical, biological and physical substances.
Wrote Book on WTC Dust
The director, who received a PhD in environmental science from Rutgers, co-authored several papers on the environmental effects of Sept. 11, in addition to his long-time work on air pollution, oil spills and other environmental issues. He wrote a book on the complex health hazards contained in the residue from the Twin Towers, “Dust: The Inside Story of Its Role in the September 11 Aftermath.”
Mr. Lioy received lifetime achievement awards in both exposure science and air-pollution research, according to the Rutgers website.
He also sat on an Environmental Protection Agency technical advisory panel that, in the years after Sept. 11, sought to determine levels of exposure to 9/11 toxins among workers and residents near the site.
His book, published in 2010, was directed at lay audiences, and explained the hazards of the high concentration of large particles in the Sept. 11 dust samples he studied. That complex mess of particles contributed to the “World Trade Center cough” that still plagues many first-responders.
‘Blizzard’ At South Tower
He described seeing the South Tower go “down like a piston” from his home in New Jersey, unleashing a “blizzard of white dust,” as described by the Government Accountability Office in a later report. That smoke and dust would reach as far as areas of Brooklyn along the East River.
The cloud was eventually found to contain dozens of toxins, including PCBs, silica dust and many carcinogenic volatile organic compounds. Mr. Lioy argued in his book that an early focus on the asbestos content of the dust was misplaced, focusing instead on other very large inhaled particles like glass fibers and pulverized cement that got caught in the upper airways.
His more-conservative approach while serving on the EPA panel differed at times from that of labor and community leaders seeking greater intervention by public health officials. A program to test and clean lower Manhattan residences and workplaces instituted by the EPA after the panel disbanded was criticized by some activists as watered-down. But Mr. Lioy’s research was used widely by scientists seeking to understand the make-up of the deadly Sept. 11 dust, and his samples provided a valuable opportunity for study, since they were among the few collected in the immediate aftermath of the attacks.
Mr. Lioy passed away after collapsing in Newark International Airport. He is survived by his wife, Jean, as well as his mother, his sister, his son, Jason, and two grandchildren.
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