May 14, 2003—The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) officially re-opened its Manhattan Area Office on May 6, a year and a half after it was destroyed in the terrorist attacks on New York City on September 11, 2001.
OSHA’s original office, located in Building Six of the World Trade Center complex, was destroyed by the terrorist attack. Staff from that office safely evacuated, regrouped, and soon returned to service at the site of their former office. There, joined by over one thousand other OSHA professionals, they worked around the clock for 10 months to protect the safety and health of workers at the site.
During the operation, OSHA workers fitted more than 6,100 workers for respirators, including 2,700 New York fire department employees; distributed on-site more than 130,000 respirators; collected more than 6,000 samples of hazardous substances and helped ensure that no more lives were lost at the site.
