Law Department notice on WTC document preservation, Oct 2001

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

Table 2-1: Key Air Quality Statements from 2001 Press Releases

BO Key statement s?

09-13-01 "Monitoring and sampling conducted on Tuesday and Wednesday have been very reassuring about potential exposure of rescue crews and the public to environmental contaminants.... EPA and OSHA will work closely with rescue and cleanup crews to minimize their potential exposure, but the general public should be very reassured by initial sampling.” 09-16-01 “Our tests show that it is safe for New Yorkers to go back to work in New York’s financial district" (quoting Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA).

“The Agency is recommending that businesses in the area planning to reopen next week take precautions including cleaning air conditioning filters and using vacuums with appropriate filters to collect dust." 09-18-01 “I am glad to reassure the people of New York and Washington, D.C. that their air is safe to breath [sic]..." (quoting EPA Administrator). 09-21-01 "NYC Monitoring Efforts Continue to Show Safe Drinking Water & Air" (press release heading). 10-03-01 “Data Confirms No Significant Public Health Risks; Rescue Crews and Nearby Residents Should Take Appropriate Precautions... ” (press release sub-heading). 10-30-01 'While we have fortunately not found levels of contaminants that pose a significant health risk to the general public, our efforts to monitor the area and keep the public informed of our findings have not waned. “

Agency officials stressed that press releases were only one of many forms of communication used to provide air quality information to the public, and that public forums and media interviews were also important. Further, EPA provided public access to its monitoring data through its public web site, which included interactive maps that could be used to identify monitoring results. In regard to the monitoring data, we found no evidence that EPA attempted to conceal data results from the public.

Data Available at the Time Did Not Fully Support EPA Press Releases

Information and the analyses of available data did not fully support the statement made in the September 18,2001, release, which quoted the EPA Administrator as saying the air was “safe” to breathe. Four factors in particular posed limitations on the conclusions that could be made at that time about air quality:

9 Report No. 2003-P-000I2

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