The Professional Staff Congress is taking a prominent role advocating for workers and residents in the World Trade Center area as plans are made to tear down a campus building severely damaged in the terrorist nightmare of September 2001.

 "The building was covered inside and out with WTC debris, which obviously includes bone fragments, PCBs and dust, " said Joan Greenbaum, who co-chairs the PSC health and safety committee.

The PSC, led by Barbara Bowen, represents faculty and staff at the City University of New York.

Five years ago, falling debris pockmarked and ripped in half Fiterman Hall of the Borough of Manhattan Community College. Fiterman Hall has since been covered with netting to contain dust and debris — and now that netting is contaminated.

The city, CUNY and the state Dormitory Authority are making plans for the building to be demolished and rebuilt.

Reaching that goal safely and thoroughly is crucial to lower Manhattan residents, construction workers, students and college staff who will work in the new building on the site and the main BMCC building several blocks away.

The PSC pressed for a public meeting, which was held Oct. 30 by CUNY. More than 100 people attended, and more than two dozen spoke about concerns such as debris transport and the search for human remains.

'Toxic waste dump'

 "All of these people were very angry (at the lack of opportunity for public input), " said Greenbaum.  "This is the first time CUNY has had any public face in the neighborhood. This is a toxic waste dump in a very populated area. "

The Dormitory Authority is waiting to hear from EPA on a proposal to set up scaffolding around Fiterman Hall so workers can scrub the outside of the building, according to Claudia Hutton, spokesperson for the authority.

The authority is working on a community notification plan for site work, she said, including an emergency plan.

PSC health and safety watchdogs have called on CUNY to host monthly public meetings providing timetables and information about contractors.

Greenbaum said WTC 7 housed an emergency bunker for the mayor, including a power station. When that blew up, Fiterman Hall was covered in dioxin, a cancer-causing toxin released in the burning of plastics.

Coalition at work

PSC has been working with the World Trade Center Labor-Community Coalition to document health and safety problems.

Coalition members receive training on indoor air quality with the New York Committee on Occupational Safety and Health. Training includes how to organize members to identify problems and monitor air quality.

 "A big fear is that as they decontaminate this building it will recontaminate other buildings, " Greenbaum said. Fiterman Hall is also contaminated now by mold.

After the terrorist attacks, CUNY put up trailers along the West Side Highway for BMCC overflow, but they were adjacent to a site where debris was being loaded onto barges.

 "People who taught there report ongoing respiratory problems, " Greenbaum said.  "We're trying to track a lot of adjuncts who taught there. "

In 1993, Miles and Shirley Fiterman donated the building, located at 30 West Broadway, to CUNY.

It's the largest donation ever made to a community college, according to college officials.

— Liza Frenette