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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsOne Way W. Did NOT Keep Us Safe That Can't Be Denied!
http://www.ucsusa.org/our-work/center-science-and-democracy/promoting-scientific-integrity/ground-zero-air-pollution.html#.ViPSAPmrS1s^snip^
World Trade Center Rescue Workers Believed EPA, Ended Up Sick
In a series of public statements issued after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) assured the people of New York that the air around ground zero was safe to breathe. Unfortunately, the agency lacked authoritative information on which to base these claims, and internal agency data conflicting with this reassuring public posture were ignored. The EPA's press releases and public statements after 9/11 were vetted by then-National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, suggesting that the White House placed politics over science when communicating about ground zero's air quality. Tragically, the impact of this public deception continues to be felt by thousands of rescue workers now plagued by chronic and crippling lung ailments.
The EPA wasted little time in assuring New York residents and rescue workers that the area surrounding ground zero was safe. On September 13, 2001, just two days after the attacks, the agency issued a press release in which it explained "sampling of bulk materials and dust found generally low levels of asbestos. The levels of lead, asbestos and volatile organic compounds in air samples taken Tuesday in Brooklyn, downwind from the World Trade Center site, were not detectable or not of concern."¹ A September 18, 2001 press release was even more confident, quoting then-EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman: "Given the scope of the tragedy from last week, I am glad to reassure the people of New York and Washington, DC that their air is safe to breathe and their water is safe to drink."
The EPA's proclamation of safe air was premature and, as it turned out, wrong. The collapse of the World Trade Center released nearly 2,000 tons of asbestos³ and hundreds of thousands of tons of concrete in the form of dust. A 2003 report from the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of the EPA later charged that the EPA lacked the information needed to determine the air quality surrounding Ground Zero in the days following the September 11 attacks.
http://911research.wtc7.net/wtc/groundzero/environment.html
^snip^
Evidence of a Health Disaster Mounts
In a November 2005 meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians, Dr. David Pezant, of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine presented the findings of a report on the lung function of 12,079 firefighters, many of whom worked at Ground Zero. The study found rates of pulmonary function decline up to 12 times higher than normal in firefighters exposed to the dust-filled air following the destruction of the buildings. 9 According to New York News Day, the study showed that the average decline in lung function experienced by Ground Zero workers was equivalent to 12 years of aging. 10 As of April, 2006, the World Trade Center Screening Program of the Mount Sinai Medical Center had recorded that about 8,000 people were requiring treatment because of injuries arising from exposure to Ground Zero air.
Reports of deaths attributed to exposure to the Ground Zero environment began to appear in early 2006. According to a January 17 AP report, three men who searched for victims in the World Trade Center ruins died within a seven-month period. 12 In April, the New York Post reported that six 9/11 responders had developed brain cancer, and three of them died. 13 The same paper reported in June that 283 World Trade Center rescue and recovery workers had been diagnosed with cancer. 14 In May of 2007, New York Citys chief medical examiner amended the death certificate of 42-year-old Felicia Dunn-Jones to indicate that her exposure to World Trade Center dust contributed to her death.
According to a class-action lawsuit on behalf of the workers, more than forty Ground Zero workers had died from exposure to the toxics as of April. 16 By June, the lawsuit's lawyer was claiming that the deaths numbered fifty-seven.
The numbers of deaths and serious injuries from Ground Zero exposures may as yet be vastly underestimated given the gaps in information about the exposures, and the limited funding for health monitoring of responders. 18 The federal government allocated only $125 million for the responders in its $21.4 billion federal aid package passed in 2002. Of the estimated 40,000 Ground Zero workers, only 16,000 had been screened by the Mount Sinai World Trade Center Worker and Volunteer Medical Screening Program by mid-2006. 19
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/03/nyregion/03suit.html?_r=0
^snip^
Public Misled on Air Quality After 9/11 Attack, Judge Says
By JULIA PRESTON
Published: February 3, 2006
Mrs. Whitman knew that the towers' destruction had released huge amounts of hazardous emissions, Judge Batts found. But as early as Sept. 13, Mrs. Whitman and the agency put out press releases saying that the air near ground zero was relatively safe and that there were "no significant levels" of asbestos dust in the air. They gave a green light for residents to return to their homes near the trade center site.
"By these actions," Judge Batts wrote, Mrs. Whitman "increased, and may have in fact created, the danger" to people living and working near the trade center. Judge Batts said that Mrs. Whitman was not entitled to immunity because she was a public official. Judge Batts allowed the suit to proceed on some counts against the E.P.A. She dismissed claims against Marianne L. Horinko, an assistant administrator of the E.P.A. at the time.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs were "very gratified that the court has recognized that the E.P.A. failed in its obligation to protect the residents of downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn," said Justin Blitz, a lead lawyer on the case.
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One Way W. Did NOT Keep Us Safe That Can't Be Denied! (Original Post)
Motown_Johnny
Oct 2015
OP
napkinz
(17,199 posts)1. K&R
Stuart G
(38,365 posts)2. K and R.. Great Post...Lie number 2 to throw at Jeb...
So, after 9/11 he did not keep the responders "safe "..
The EPA..lied for the then President Bush. .and that was after the day of the bombing..
perhaps these two lies will make Jeb the looser that he really is.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)3. How about the stunning revelations of Katrina, that people could die
in America, while we watched it happen on TV, because nobody came...
Motown_Johnny
(22,308 posts)5. Also true, but that was passive.
In this example his administration actively made false claims about the safety of the area.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)6. True. But Katrina was massive. A massive betrayal of duty and trust.
spanone
(135,636 posts)4. K&R...
MBS
(9,688 posts)7. Classic Bush administration M.O.
. .. a disgrace.
W. did more damage to our country than any administration in my lifetime.
ProfessorGAC
(64,425 posts)8. And Then There Was Anthrax
That made everyone fell much safer.