Law Department notice on WTC document preservation, Oct 2001

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

Ground Zero may not have used respirators due, in part, to inadequate EPA and other government communication.

EPA was one of many governmental and non-governmental agencies that communicated health risk information to workers and the public. The levels of non-adherence to the risk communications of these governmental agencies suggests that all the participating levels of government need to re-examine their policies, procedures, and practices for ensuring that necessary precautions are consistently followed to reduce human exposure to contaminants.

Recommendation We recommend that the EPA Administrator:

5-1. Coordinate with FEMA and other applicable Federal agencies to clearly establish Federal agency responsibilities, roles, and procedures during an emergency response that ensure that:

• Workers responding to emergencies are adequately protected by the development and strict enforcement of health and safety plans.

• Health hazard information is effectively communicated to emergency response crews.

• Sufficiently detailed health risk information is effectively communicated to the public, including actions that the public should take to reduce their potential exposure to harmful pollutants.

Additional recommendations relevant to the issues discussed in this chapter are included in Chapters 2, 3, and 7. Also, additional recommendations may be presented in our subsequent report on the results of our public survey.

Agency and New York City Comments and OIG Evaiuation EPA agreed with the recommendation but noted that it and other Agencies provided the public with the most comprehensive and up-to-date information available. In regard to worker safety, EPA noted that it supported OSHA in many ways, including a long-term effort to educate workers about the need to wear respirators. The Agency’s complete written response to our draft report and our detailed evaluation of that response are contained Appendices Q and R, respectively.

45 Report No. 2003-P-00012

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