WTC document preservation notice, NYC Law Department

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document Chics^o Tribune | Panel told NYC was misled on air quality htlpy/www,chicagotiibune.coni/news/nationw...202120255febl2.story?coU=chi%2Dnews%2Dhed

By Stevenson Swanson Tribune national oon-espondent PubHshed Fabnary 12. 2002 NEW YORK - In a sharp departure from the nearly uniwersal praise that government agencies have received for their handling of the Sept 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, federal environmental officials came under Iwavy criticism Monday forfeiting New Yorkers that pollution posed no problem In lower Manhattan after the attacks.

By reassuring the public that the air around the trade center was safe, the Environmental Protection Agency misled the public, charged Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), testifying at a Senate subcommittee hearing on air quali^.

EPA's datsments were based only on outdoor he said, and did not take into account the colontial for cancer-causing asbestos and other toxins from burning trade-center debris to reach high Looking for concentrations in nearby apartments and offices.

■We now know enough to bo alarmed and outraged at the federal govemmenfs response to the environmental mpffittrffSejri. 11,'Nadler, who represents lower Manhattan, told Sens. Joseph Liebanian (D-Conn.) and Hfllary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.). -New York was at the center of one of ths most calamitous events in American History, and the EPA has essentially walked away.'

Madler's te^mony was the harshest attack so far in a

old friends? controversy that has gattiered momentum in recent weeks as confusion has spread over how offices and Comes near ground zero ^uW be cleaned.

lualily, but shortly after Sept. 11 ttdelegated for ensuring that Indoor air was safe to New

EPA regional admInWrafor Jane Kenny said later during the hearing that the agency "used the most extensive data aver* in assessing air quality in the neighborhood around the trade center site. Reassurances by EPA Administrator Chri^ Whitman in September about the safely of the air were meant to apply only to the outdoor air, and Kenny

City officials said that tests in some lower Manhaifen buildinga found low levels rff adiestos, but crifics say that privato test results rtf offices and apartrrmnts have found unsafe amounts of the toxin in the dust that blew in through broken windows or was sucked in by ventHalion systems.

Thtd has toff apartment dwefiers and business owners adrift as they try to determine whether their cleanup efforts have been sufficient -It took eight guys in white suits and respirators five days to dean my apartment,- testified Elizabeth Berger, who lives with her husband and two children in an apartment 1 SO feet from ground zero. -But is it dean? No one tells you what to keep and what to toss.- Special reports Berger said her family threw away their sheets and towels, hundreds of stuffed animals, and five mattresses, but

All SDsdal raoarls City officials said they ware overwhelmed by the number of tests and permits required to guarantee safe temovai of pollutants from interiors.

-I am nd convinced that the environmental response to the Sept 11 attack was as well-coordinated as other aspecls,- Top news headlines Lieberman said.

lawmakers heap aoom During the hearing at New York's landmark U.S. Custom House south of the trade center site, several experts agreed on former Enron that air quality in lower Manhattan has generally returned to pre-SepL 11 levels and that relativaly few violations of pollution staridards have occurred since late September. Chairman But many firefighters and other rescue workers at ground zero labored without respirators, leading to respiratory FBI issues urgent alert ailments sursh as the persistent 'World Trade Center cough," shortness of breath and nosebleeds. Chief suapea In To dofermlne whether any long-term health effects show up, a registry is being created to track firefighters who worked reportw'sKWnaB at the site. arrested Conrreverslal priest may <^PybgM®2002.afiicmItto be leaving parish

Iof2 2/12/02 12:39 PM

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