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World Trade Center Environmental Contaminant Database (WTCECD)

The purpose of the World Trade Center Environmental Contaminant Database (WTCECD) is to provide pre- and post-9/11 environmental data from the New York City area and the state of New Jersey in an easily accessible format.

This database is intended for use by individuals interested in having access to raw data in order to explore exposures related to the WTC disaster or general air quality issues in NYC and New Jersey.  We hope that researchers, educators, as well as interested individuals will find the site helpful.

The WTCECD currently provides:

• data collected on samples of outdoor air, outdoor bulk dust, indoor air, and indoor dust wipes specifically in response to the disaster by the USEPA and NYSDEC; approximately 200 parameters are present, including particulate matter mass (PM2.5, PM10), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), dioxins, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), metals, and asbestos.

• air quality data reported to EPA’s Aerometric Information Retrieval System (AIRS) data repository from fixed-site air quality monitoring stations run by local, state and federal environmental agencies from 1970 to December 31, 2004. These include ozone, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, lead, particulate matter mass (TSP, PM10, PM2.5) plus parameters measured on an irregular basis which include a suite of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), dioxins, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), particle-associated metals, and limited meteorological data.

In the future, the WTCECD will provide links to other (offsite) datasets relevant to WTC exposures, as well as incorporating other datasets provided by researchers at NIEHS centers.

The web-based interface allows searching the WTCECD for one or more contaminant parameters from one or more specific sites. Query results are provided for download as comma or tab-delimited text files. A typical WTCECD query automatically provides sampling location, sampling date and other fields helpful for data interpretation (e.g. agency provided data quality flags). Additional fields are available and may be selected. Query results may be date-limited prior to download, as well.

Supplemental documentation (maps, data dictionaires, QA/QC flag definitions) is available from links on the left-hand side of each webpage. Online help is available at each step in the query.

This database was developed with funding from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences via their Centers for Environmental Health at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University and Bloomberg School of Public Health at John Hopkins, with support from grants P30 ES09089 and P30 ES03819. The site programmers are in the Statistical Analysis Center in the Department of Biostatistics at Columbia University. Furthermore, this database would not have been possible without all the help we received from numerous staff at USEPA and NYSDEC, which we gratefully acknowledge.

Disclaimer:

• The purpose of the WTCECD is to provide data, as described above, in an easily accessible format. Data analysis and interpretations are not provided on the web site nor will WTCECD staff provide recommendations for data analysis.

• Data included in the WTCECD have been provided by state and federal agencies. These data have been incorporated as delivered; no additional quality assurance has been conducted by the WTCECD staff. As such, the WTCECD staff can provide NO additional assurance regarding the veracity of the data. Users with questions about data sets must direct their questions to the original data source.

• Data included in the WTCECD collected in specific response to the events of September 11, 2001, have undergone quality assurance by the originating agencies. The WTCECD staff has been advised that this is an on-going process and further changes to this data set may occur in the future. If changes are made, the WTCECD will be updated upon delivery of the revised data set. Any changes to the WTCECD will be posted to the "Recent Changes" section of the website.

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