People are suited up in protective clothing as recovery work continues at the site of the World Trade Center, five years after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, in New York, Oct. 24, 2006. Utility workers removing rubble from manholes discovered some bones last Thursday, prompting a renewed search for such remains. Since then, a total of 114 human bones and bone fragments have been uncovered in additional searches, the city's chief medical examiners office said on Monday. (Xinhua Photo) Photo Gallery >>>

    NEW YORK, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- The search for human remains at the World Trade Center site resumed Tuesday, after officials let crews off early Monday because of the possibility of toxins released into the air.

    The search was suspended two hours ahead of schedule Monday afternoon because officials feared the work may be stirring up toxic dust like asbestos and other pollutants, but air quality tests came back negative, allowing crews to go back to work.

    However, workers, mostly forensic anthropologists for the medical examiner's office, will continue to wear masks. No additional human remains were found during in-depth searches Monday.

    Many family members of victims are still demanding all World Trade Center construction be stopped so experts can conduct the search.

    But New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg insisted that construction needs to continue to build for the future. "We're a hundred percent convinced that we have the expertise and we have experience of how to deal in the city, in building and in the infrastructure," he said.

    John McArdle, the retired police lieutenant who oversaw the recovery of remains after the terror attacks, said he wanted to take more time at the site but was overruled.

    "I knew that this was going to happen, and they really just wanted us out of there," McArdle said. "There was not a good exit strategy for some of these places, and if there was, it was poorly done."

    The project finished months ahead of city officials' year long prediction, and cost about 750 million dollars, just a fraction of the initial multibillion-dollar estimate.

    The mayor acknowledged the initial search may have been rushed, but argued that the crews did the best they could under enormous pressure.