Demand Testing, Clean-Up

Urge Feds to Deal With WTC Toxins

By GINGER ADAMS OTIS

Elected officials, labor leaders and public heath advocates urged the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last week to make a full disclosure about the health risks associated with World Trade Center contamination and to institute a proper testing and clean-up program for lower Manhattan as the fifth anniversary of the disaster approaches.

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U.S. Reps Jerrold Nadler, Carolyn B. Maloney, Charles Rangel, and Major R. Owens, along with Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and Assemblywoman Deborah Glick at an Aug. 22 press conference at City Hall criticized the EPA for not following up on a 2003 report by its own Inspector General that found the agency's clean-up efforts inadequate.

False Assurances

The EPA in the wake of the 9/11 disaster issued a statement declaring the air in lower Manhattan safe to breathe. It was later revealed that it had done so under pressure from the White House.

In 2003, the EPA Inspector General found that the agency "did not have sufficient data and analyses" to announce less than a week after the attacks that it was safe to return to the area around Ground Zero. The report concluded that "competing considerations, such as national security concerns and the desire to reopen Wall St., also played a role in EPA's air quality concerns."

The IG urged the EPA to employ aggressive, scientifically rigorous sampling methods; test for "all contaminants of concern" and not just asbestos; include work spaces and schools; and expand its geographic boundaries to include all areas impacted by WTC dust. The EPA's initial plans excluded the Lower East Side, Chinatown and parts of Brooklyn.

"Perhaps tens of thousands of people are today still living, working and going to school in contaminated buildings and are being slowly poisoned," said Congressman Nadler. "We can expect thousands of people to suffer early death from lung cancer, asbestosis and mesothelioma, cases that we will probably start seeing in 10 or 15 years."

'Depraved Indifference'

Mr. Nadler said that scenario could be prevented if there were a proper inspection of buildings in affected areas and a stringent clean-up program.

The Chief-Leader/Michel Friang PEOPLE 'SLOWLY POISONED': U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler leads the call for the Environmental Protection Agency to conduct a more thorough and well-documented clean-up of lower Manhattan. Congressman Nadler claims that thousands of residents and office workers around Ground Zero have inhaled toxins for years thanks to the EPA's shoddy response to the disaster.

"If not, then our public officials will continue to be guilty of a depraved indifference to human life," he continued. "And that means the President, the Governor, the Mayor and the EPA."

Manhattan Borough President Stringer went a step further, claiming that the EPA's lack of response to the city was indicative of the Federal Government's indifference to New Yorkers.

"It's a convenient excuse for this administration to walk away from a group of people who aren't necessarily going to agree with them all the time," he charged. "Would this be happening in Ohio, or Florida? We've been denied help because we are a 'blue' state."

'You Owe Us Action'

Seventeen members of the New York delegation in the U.S. House of Representatives, along with Sens. Charles E. Schumer and Hillary Clinton, sent a letter to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson asking that the agency comply with the IGs 2003 recommendations.

"We believe that the EPA owes the people of New York, and the citizens of this country, substantive action on this critical matter. Therefore, we respectfully request that you provide us with a written response, by the fifth anniversary of 9/11, detailing when the EPA will finally comply with the findings of the IG report. We also request that you provide us with copies of all the documents referenced in the IG report," the letter said.

Congresswoman Maloney, who along with U.S. Rep. Vito Fossella of Staten Island has led the push for better Federal monitoring and oversight of those exposed to 9/11 dust, read the names of several uniformed service members who died of what are believed to be WTC-related illnesses. She then noted that not a single Federal dollar has been allocated in the past five years for treatment.

Joel Shufro, executive director of the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health, said lower Manhattan residents and office workers, along with the rescue and recovery workers who were at Ground Zero, live with the uncertainty of not knowing what they might have been exposed to, and what possible health effects there might be.

'Have No Idea'

"No one, at any level of government or in the private sector, has the slightest idea where 9/11 contamination remains, waiting to become airborne," Mr. Shufro said. "Today, thanks to the EPA, we literally have no idea how many workers are still being exposed. We demand that the EPA establish a science-based benchmark and clean every workplace that doesn't come up to it."

Mary Mears, chief of the EPA's public outreach branch, disputed claims that the agency misled the public. "The EPA's highest priority is to protect the environment and health of the people of New York," she said in a written statement released after the press conference.

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