TESTIMONY OF JULIE HIRAGA
TEACHER AT PS 89 IN
MANHATTAN
REPRESENTING THE UNITED
FEDERATION OF TEACHERS
ON AIR QUALITY AND HEALTH
ISSUES
AFTER THE SEPT. 11 ATTACK
BEFORE THE UNITED STATES SENATE
COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENT AND
PUBLIC WORKS
SUBCOMMITTEE ON CLEAN AIR,
WETLANDS, AND CLIMATE CHANGE
FEBRUARY 11, 2002
Good morning, Chairman Lieberman, Senator Clinton and members of the committee. My name is Julie Hiraga. I am a second grade teacher at PS 89 in Manhattan and am here representing Randi Weingarten, president of the United Federation of Teachers. Thank you for this opportunity to testify on the health issues that concern those of us who live and work in Lower Manhattan.
The brutal attack on the World Trade Center
on September 11 was a trauma we are all still learning to overcome, but slowly
we are trying to return to normal. At PS 89, one of seven schools in the
immediate vicinity of Ground Zero, the teachers and paraprofessionals quickly
led children out of harm’s way even as the Twin Towers fell and smoke and
debris filled the air. Miraculously, not one student was injured or lost in the
attack.
Following the disaster, our schools were relocated
to other sites, and some were moved yet again. For the children in PS 89, our
two moves took their toll, emotionally and educationally. The adjustments were
especially disruptive for students who had to take state tests in reading and
language arts. Unfortunately, children did not start getting counseling until
January. Still, the teachers have been doing their best to keep students calm
and focused on learning.
This has been a very frightening time for all of us,
but the teachers of PS 89 want to return to our normal routine. Right now, we
are scheduled to go back to our home school on Feb. 28, and although there’s a
lot of excitement and optimism, there’s also some anxiety about safety.
Teachers are concerned about having to keep windows closed and not having an
outdoor play space for the children.
Also, the school is on the truck route for debris
removal. These huge trucks emit diesel fumes and their cargo throws a lot of
dust in the air. Teachers are worried about the long-term impact on their
health and wonder if symptoms may not emerge for some time.
Parents, too, are worried about air quality and
health issues and we wonder how that will affect student enrollment. Right now,
we have only half the students we had before Sept. 11 because parents have
moved or withdrawn their children. Now parents of about 30 more students have
applied to withdraw their children when we go back to our building because they
are concerned about health and safety. The problem is compounded when children
hear some classmates talk about their parents’ worries and become fearful.
Having our union as a watchdog has helped allay some
of those fears. The UFT’s two industrial hygienists and its consulting
physician made presentations to our staff and made sure that our questions were
answered. They reviewed all the air-testing data and assured us that they will
continue reviewing the reports. They said that air testing and sampling of a
number of contaminants that could prove harmful to students and staff will
continue on a regular schedule, both inside and outside every affected school.
The union’s representatives have also been very
responsive to our concerns and needs. They explained what was being done to
control the dust, such as watering down the trucks and installing matting under
all exterior school doors to hinder dust seepage. They helped our school get a new,
more efficient filtration system and a new HEPA vacuum for our custodial staff.
They even sent us snacks and towelettes, and that gave us a real morale boost
when we needed it.
We’ve also had a chance to see what has happened at
the other schools that reopened. Stuyvesant High School was the first to reopen
on Oct. 9. Teachers in my school followed events there very closely. Stuyvesant
is further from Ground Zero than PS 89, but the fires were still burning when
students and staff returned. Many of my colleagues wondered if the air was
safe, even though experts who reviewed the sampling data tried to reassure
everyone.
Since some staff and students at Stuyvesant
complained of respiratory problems, the union asked the federal government to
conduct its own evaluation. As a result, on Jan. 29 the National Institute for
Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) began the first survey comparing staff
symptoms at Stuyvesant High School with those at a high school out of the
affected area (Fiorello LaGuardia HS in midtown Manhattan).
We also saw that the union’s experts were not
content with acceptable facts and figures alone. They conducted on-site visual
inspections of all the affected schools to make sure they were properly cleaned
and prepared for reoccupancy. A good example is what happened at the High
School for Economics and Finance, which was had been scheduled to reopen on
Jan. 30. Both the monitoring data and a preliminary inspection showed that
everything was ready. But then additional work was done, releasing new dust and
debris. Because union representatives made a follow-up visit on the Sunday
before the scheduled reopening, they saw these new potential hazards and kept
students and staff from moving back until the board cleaned the school again.
In the meantime, our sister school, IS 89,
reoccupied the top two floors of our shared building on Jan. 22. It is doing
well, which is encouraging. I also hear that the staffs at PS 150 and PS 234,
which had many of the same concerns we had, are glad to be back in their own
buildings.
So to sum up, there are lingering concerns about the
our students’ psychological and educational welfare, as well as about parental
reactions. All of us at the school have had concerns about air quality and
other health hazards in the aftermath of September 11. However, the independent
monitoring and involvement of the union’s health and safety experts has helped
reassure us.
Thank you.