In the rush after 9/11 to calm the nerves of anxious New Yorkers, the Bush administration downplayed the potential hazardous air quality of the financial district and consequently increased the risk of exposure for thousands.

 

An investigation by ProPublica and The Guardian found several instances in which government officials either changed health warnings or made declarations with limited knowledge to back up their assertions.

 

For example, people who worked on Water Street were told it was safe to return to work six days after the attacks…in contrast to an earlier draft of a warning that advised just the opposite. Also, federal officials stated that testing indicated the area was safe, when in fact scientific assessments had just begun and ultimately found unusually high levels of toxic chemicals in the air and dust.

 

In 2003 the inspector general of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a report that criticized EPA officials for allowing the White House Council on Environmental Quality to influence the wording of their public statements regarding air safety. On December 23, 2010, Congress approved a bill to provide $4.3 billion in aid for first responders to the World Trade Center attacks…more than nine years after they took place.

 

“The misleading communications by civic leaders and their failure to insist on respiratory protection in the days, weeks and months after the initial rescue operation ended undoubtedly contributed and will continue to contribute to sickness in the rescue and recovery workers and in the citizens of Lower Manhattan,” Dr. Philip Landrigan, chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, told ProPublica.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

New Docs Detail How Feds Downplayed Ground Zero Health Risks (by Anthony DePalma, ProPublica)