The EPA told us the air near Ground Zero was safe to breathe

Rage for Order

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Wed Aug-04-10 02:22 PM
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The EPA told us the air near Ground Zero was safe to breathe

For those of you who don't understand why many of us are skeptical of the government's reports stating that the majority of the oil is gone and things will be back to normal sooner rather than later, please see below. Government bureaucrats and scientists have been wrong before, and they've withheld important health information from the general population more times than I can count.

From January 8, 2002:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A11173-2002Jan7?language=printer

The EPA, which has conducted thousands of tests of Lower Manhattan's air since Sept. 11, has repeatedly assured residents that the air is safe to breathe. Doctors note that some symptoms could be caused or enhanced by stress -- and many will undoubtedly dissipate as the last smoldering fires go out and the air grows clearer.

"I am glad to reassure the people of New York . . . that their air is safe to breathe and their water is safe to drink," EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman said a week after the attacks. "The good news for the residents of New York is that the air, while smoky, is not dangerous," an EPA spokeswoman told the Los Angeles Times at about the same time. And at the end of September, another spokeswoman, citing recent tests for asbestos, told the New York Daily News: "There was not a significant risk, even in the early days." The agency released selected test results that seemed to buttress those assertions.

But the EPA also found more troubling results, and it did not release that data until after the nonprofit New York Environmental Law and Justice Project filed a Freedom of Information Act request. These tests found elevated levels of dioxin, PCBs, lead and chromium, all toxic substances, in the air, soil and water around the site.

In a Sept. 26 EPA test, for example, three of 10 samples near the attack site showed elevated readings for lead. Exposure to lead can damage the kidneys and central nervous system, and is especially dangerous to children. An Oct. 11 EPA test in the ground zero area found benzene, a colorless liquid that evaporates quickly but can cause leukemia in long-term exposure, measured 58 times above the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration's limit. Those results were not released until late October.

EPA spokeswoman Bonnie Bellow said the late release was an oversight, caused by the chaos of those first weeks. She added that the agency had performed 3,561 tests for asbestos in New York, and only 29 of those recorded higher levels than the federal standard.

From February 2002:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2002/02/07/usat-wtc-acov.htm

Roughly one in four firefighters who have been working at Ground Zero have what some are calling "World Trade Center cough" or another respiratory complaint, fire department officials say. About 750 have had to take medical leave, according to the firefighters' union.

Now, the Environmental Protection Agency and local health officials are under fire from politicians and others who accuse them of failing to adequately inform the public about potential long-term health risks from asbestos, heavy metals and various chemicals. They say officials downplayed negative test results of such substances as benzene, dioxins and PCBs and have been slow in releasing test findings to the public.

The EPA disputes those criticisms and says the outdoor air downtown poses no long-term health risks.

The EPA says it has been vigilant in sharing information, meeting with various agencies, regularly updating its Web site and even maintaining a lab near Ground Zero. The lab performs daily tests for toxins and gives the results immediately to workers at the site.

"Based on our findings, and now really more than 10,000 samples of a wide range of substances, we have found no significant long-term risk posed by the outdoor air," EPA spokeswoman Bonnie Bellow said last week.