EPA’s scientific independence questioned once again over 9/11 air quality

Environmental Heath Perspectives : A study among workers at the site of the collapsed World Trade Center, has found that 69 percent of the participants reported new or worsened respiratory difficulties after working at the site. Nearly a third still had abnormal lung function when tested between 1 to 2 1/2 years later. The study consists of 9,442 of the 40,000 workers who had complained about the air quality of the site. This implies that overall, 16 percent of the overall workers at the site had respiratory health problems. It does not include downtown residents or New York office workers who live in the area. Compared to the general population, workers at the site were twice as likely to develop serious respiratory problems. After 9/11, Environmental Protection Agency Secretary Christie Whitman, reassured the public that the air in Lower Manhattan was safe to breathe. On Sept. 18, 2001, while fires still raged at the World Trade Center site, she said “I am glad to reassure the people of New York and Washington, D.C., that their air is safe to breathe and their water is safe to drink.” Two years later, an evaluation by EPA Inspector General Nikki L. Tinsley found that the agency “did not have sufficient data and analyses to make such a blanket statement.” The review found that indoor cleanup workers “were generally not provided with respirators,” and though respirators were available to most responders at ground zero, they frequently went unused. The New York Daily News quotes Whitman saying that then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s aides ignored her warnings that workers at Ground Zero should wear respirators after the 9/11 attacks to protect their health. “We always said consistently, ‘You’ve got to wear protective gear,’” Whitman tells Katie Couric on CBS’s “60 Minutes .” Whitman also says that her comments in 2001 on air quality were directed to New York as a whole, and should not have referred to ground zero, the site of the collapsed World Trade Center.New Documents released this month and reported by ABC News however, suggests that both EPA scientists and the New York City Department of Enviromental Protection were more concerned about air quality than the public realized. “DEP believes the air quality is not yet suitable for reoccupancy,” says one memo, “I was told the mayor’s office was directing OEM [Office of Emergency Management] to open the target areas next week.” Related news stories On Air Quality ABC News CBS 60 minutes: The Dust At Ground Zero Whitman quotes from the New York Daily News San Francisco Chronicle (2003): 9.11.01: Two years later Ground zero air quality was ‘brutal’ for months UC Davis scientist concurs that EPA reports misled the public Seattlepi.com (2003): White House edited EPA’s 9/11 reports EPA Press Releases related to 9/11 On Medical Study Environmental Heath Perspectives study NPR New York Times LA Times Chicago Tribune