A health and safety report for rescue and clean-up personnel at the World Trade Center reveals a site that has been astoundingly hazardous to workers.

The National Institute of Environmental Health Services released a report on Oct. 23 that said a total of 7,000 injuries had been reported by recovery workers at the site in the first four weeks after the collapse of the towers.

In one 11-day period, 995 illness and injuries were recorded among the 3,000 recovery workers at the site. Injuries varied in severity, but included respiratory problems, severe burns, eye injuries and broken bones.

The report said "there was no evidence or even suggestion that any safety and health program was operative at the site, indeed, the very opposite seems to be the case."

"Absent a comprehensive WTC safety and health plan and given the lack of an organized safety and health presence on the site, we found it to be a very dangerous working environment where many workers lack the hazard-specific training required under current OSHA standards," said Joseph Hughes, program director of the institute's Worker Education and Training Program.

The assessment said the loss of almost the entire emergency response command structure of the New York Fire Department resulted in a shortage of experienced Haz-Mat personnel.

Volunteer building trades workers from Michigan and around the nation were exposed to the hazards after they flocked to the World Trade Center site in the days after the collapse of the towers to help in the rescue effort.

Since October, four contractors using paid union construction workers have been handling the clean-up in New York City, and job safety equipment has been used more extensively.

The institute is also reporting the presence of the "World Trade Center cough" among NYC firefighters and other rescue workers who responded to the collapse of the towers. Respiratory difficulties and a persistent cough have affected more than 4,000 rescue workers.

Dr. David Prezant, chief pulmonologist for the New York Fire Department, said that in a random sampling of 100 sick firefighters, airway hyper-reactivity was found in 25 of them, an indication that they could develop asthma from their exposure.

"This is a major problem that no one is talking about," said Prezant. "We don't know if [these conditions] will be permanent."