Air quality concerns surfaced in Surfside after apartment collapse

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Surside, Florida – It’s been more than two weeks since the partial collapse of the Champlain Towers South complex in Surfside, and questions have now been raised about the safety of search crews and residents due to the recent demolition of the existing structure and all of the debris.

Air samples showed the air to be dangerous, especially over and around the pile of rubble.

Video taken near the site of the collapse shows dust and debris particles flying through the air as teams work to retrieve the bodies.

10 local news got a photo of two samples off the air. The top is a random air sample taken at the University of Miami, showing particles in the air.

The bottom is a sample of air taken from a pile of rubble. The two are radically different.

“We’ll probably never know everything we’ve been exposed to there,” said Billy McAllister, president of Metropolitan Dade County Local 1403.

Staffs work 12-hour shifts, 24 hours a day. To date, about 13 million pounds of debris have been removed.

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Substances released into the air can be inhaled, swallowed and absorbed through the skin, which can lead to cancer and respiratory disease.

So, while search teams work to find the missing, others are working to keep them safe.

“Dr. Birzant runs the World Trade Center Respiratory Health Initiative, and we were in contact with him very early on, asking him for advice and improvements that he suggests we implement here locally,” McAllister said.

P100 masks are required, as are gloves and protective coverings.

“In the first few hours, not everyone had P100s, which are the ones with the purple cartridges,” McAllister said. “We worked with Miami-Dade Fire and other partners in the community to ensure that everyone working on top of the crash was wearing P100, which is appropriate respiratory protection.”

He added: “There are air monitoring stations that collect data continuously and then there are other things that are collected intermittently.”

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The International Firefighters Association is working with the University of Miami and UM has donated laboratories, space, and equipment.

The association will test firefighters for toxins that may penetrate their protective equipment.

After 9/11, more than 1,000 firefighters developed cancer, 44 of whom died. Another 10,600 were diagnosed with respiratory diseases.

The biggest fear …

“It’s the unknown. We don’t know what we don’t know,” McAllister said. “This is our business. We should be there.”

As far as we know now, no off-site air quality testing is done, but several residents and community leaders have suggested that the EPA come and monitor the air. At this point, that didn’t happen.

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