A few days ago the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties chaired by Rep. Jerrold Nadler(D-NY08 aka Ground Zero) questioned EPA representatives and independent scientists regarding the EPA's politicized safety assurances to people (not just New Yorkers worked on or around that toxic pile) days after the terrorist attacks on the WTC.
The hearing was live-bloggedhere. Despite shocking revelations, the traditional media is totally ignoring the evidence of intentional wrongdoing/malfeasance collected.
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Had the EPA actually performed its duty to protect the public (instead of bowing to White House pressure), Wall Street's and Citibank's re-openings might have been delayed but real people would have had a greater chance for long-term health and survival.
Roughly 70 percent of nearly 10,000 workers tested at Mount Sinai from 2002 to 2004 reported that they had new or substantially worsened respiratory problems while or after working at ground zero. The rate is similar to that found among a smaller sample of 1,100 such workers released by Mount Sinai in 2004, but the scale of the current study gives it far more weight; it also indicates significant problems not reflected in the original study.
For example, one-third of the patients in the new study showed diminished lung capacity in tests designed to measure the amount of air a person can exhale. Among nonsmokers, 28 percent were found to have some breathing impairment, more than double the rate for nonsmokers in the general population.
The study is among the first to show that many of the respiratory ailments — like sinusitis and asthma, and gastrointestinal problems related to them — initially reported by ground zero workers persisted or grew worse in the years after 9/11.
As Chairman Nadler stated:
I represent the site of the World Trade Center and the surrounding communities. The World Trade Center collapse propelled hundreds of tons of asbestos, nearly half a million pounds of lead, and untold amounts of glass fibers, steel and concrete into a massive cloud of toxic, caustic dust and smoke which blanketed parts of New York City and New Jersey, and was blown or dispersed into surrounding office buildings, schools, and residences. In addition, fires that burned for many months emitted particulate matter, various heavy metals, PCBs, VOCs, dioxin, benzene and other deadly substances.
Tens of thousands of my constituents and others from around the country who responded to the call have already begun to suffer severe illnesses as a result of this environmental disaster. I have, unfortunately, had to spend the better part of the last five plus years attempting to cajole the federal government into telling the truth about 9/11 air quality, insisting that there must be a full and proper cleanup of the environmental toxins remaining in apartments, workplaces, and schools that, to this day, are poisoning people, and demanding that the government provide long term, comprehensive health care to those already sick -- be they first responders or area residents, workers or school children.
http://www.house.gov/...
Independent experts testified (and EPA officials admitted) that their public pronouncements were based upon non-standard testing methodologies to assess the levels of airborne carcinogens (asbestos, dioxin, benzene) and that the White House political hacks were involved in altering press releases to change them from cautious warnings to safety assurances!
The EPA officials calmly/arrogantly stated that they had relied upon aerial pictures of the 9-11 dust cloud to determine the boundaries of the hazard zone. {Prompting STUNNED SILENCE from at least this layperson who knows you can't see/photograph microscopic airborne asbestos fibers/particles - WTF!} Contrary to all common sense, these officials explained that if the photo did not indicate the presence of dust, those areas were not designated as hazardous and workers and residents were encouraged to return.
When experts pointed out that dangerous and totally unsafe toxins (like asbestos and dioxin and benzene) were not detectable via aerial photography, the EPA officials fell back on "we did the best we could" or "we were working on a collegial basis with NY officials, or "you have to remember how chaotic it was...," and - of course - "the terrorists did it"....blah, {groan}, blah, {groan}, blah, {GROAN}!
Sadly, this appalling information of criminal behavior by EPA official at the behest of the White House has disappeared from the news. These few paragraphs do not do justice to the damning revelations documented by Rep. Nadler's committee. You should all read the entire transcript.
Speaker Pelosi apparently has committed herself (and our Congress) to making a record of this 'administration's' crimes but she refuses to consider impeachment because it might interfere with the next Presidential election. Nadler's hearing shows that political operatives in the White House eager to reopen Wall Street altered the cautious warnings EPA scientists disseminated. As a direct result first responders and residents were not properly warnedabout the undisputed,well-knownhealth hazards they would face if they worked on a smoldering pile containing (at a minimum) asbestos, dioxins, and bezene.
There's no known safe level of asbestos exposure. However, it's thought that the higher the levels of asbestos and the longer the time that someone is exposed to asbestos, the greater is their risk of developing problems.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/...
Residents were even specifically instructed BY THE EPA to clean up the asbestos-laden dust with wet rags and mops and then to dispose of the collected dust in the public drains and garbage cans!
"After 9/11, our government gave residents the dangerous advice that they could clean up the WTC dust in their homes themselves with wet rags and mops, and everything would be fine," said Kimberly Flynn, Co-coordinator for 9/11 Environmental Action. "That was followed by a poorly designed, haphazard cleanup program in 2002 that left thousands of families at risk. Now we have a new sampling plan, but it's set up to underestimate remaining contamination, so it will undermine the possibility of any cleanup. EPA needs to work with us in good faith to fix this plan and do the job right."
http://www.house.gov/...
EPA officials testified that they were to this day unaware of peer-reviewed scientific studies documenting significantly increased pulmonary and respiratory diseases and fetal abnormalities among 9-11 workers and Ground Zero residents. How could such willful indifference to the health of tens of thousands of (mostly wealthy) Americans not be headline news???
There is so much that needs to be done I'll certainly understand if this isn't a priority for many. Nonetheless, I (a non-New Yorker) just can't abide the appalling testismony presented at that hearing just fading away. Please don't let this fade away.
Until we put the mindless genie of selfish greed back in the dank bottle it belongs in we are WATF!