NEW YORK, Oct 27: Toxic chemicals and metals are being released from fires and rubble in the ruins of the World Trade Center at levels sometimes exceeding US government safety standards, the Daily News reported on Friday.

The newspaper, quoting from Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) documents obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request, said benzene, chlorinated dioxins, chromium, copper, lead, polychlorinated dioxins and sulfur oxide had been found in the air and soil in lower Manhattan.

The Environmental Protection Agency officials and city officials said the article exaggerated the dangers.

“We have advised from day one that the workers need to be serious about the masks and the suits and all the protective gear,” William Muszynski, acting regional administrator for the US EPA, said at a news conference.

“We’ve also done monitoring not just at the site but also at the perimeters ... to make sure citizens can have assurance there is nothing to be overly concerned about,” said Muszynski, who added that the EPA data were being made public.

“I can assure you that from all the data collected so far our representations are that the workers need to take protection and citizens who are healthy are safe. People with respiratory issues will have to take a little extra precaution.”

The Daily News said that while much attention has been focused on possible asbestos contamination from the complex destroyed when two hijacked passenger planes slammed into the twin 110-story towers on Sept. 11, toxic chemical levels were more extensive at certain times than first believed.

The New York Times reported separately on Friday that most health experts were not alarmed about the effects on residents and office workers in lower Manhattan because the spikes in toxic levels do not last long and occur in the middle of the night.

But in the financial district on Friday, office workers said they were concerned about the “toxic zone” and breathing in the gritty, acrid, smelly air daily that still hangs over them more than six weeks after the attacks.

“We work in a toxic zone. So when you ask what do people think down here, they certainly don’t think of gold,” said a precious metals broker at the COMEX metals division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, a stone’s throw from the wreckage.

“That’s all anyone is talking about,” said the broker, who asked not to be identified.

The Times said that monitors tracking pollution around the six-hectare site of the ruined towers were unable to distinguish how much pollution was caused by smoldering fires deep inside the rubble, or diesel machinery operating around the clock on the surface.

Benzene, a colorless liquid that evaporates quickly and can cause leukemia, bone marrow damage and other diseases, has been found on same days to exceed federal safety standards, reported the Daily News, which received the documents via the non-profit New York Environmental Law and Justice Project.

It said one example was a benzene reading taken on Oct. 3 at three spots around “ground zero” and which measured at 42, 31 and 16 times higher than standards set by the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration.—Reuters