New York Times excerpt on air quality challenges, Oct 2002

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

to Oeline wnat “the pursuit of EPA Comes Glean on Asbestos lung compared By Kimberley A. Strassel parental groups, plaintiffs lawyers and ward “carcinogens.” Evjin as th^^B ce and intellec- No more than a few hours after the school officials, was resisting any backing calms Manhattan about asbestos, it isro-' ple and’ groups World 'Trade Center fell, the media were off in the war. manding that General Electric spend bil­ s. Let the cable reporting that the north tower had con­ This has corroded the economy. At least lions to dredge the Hudson of PCBs-a it for wretched tained 40 floors of asbestos, all of which 40 companies have gone into bankruptcy substance that has never been proven to was now swirling around downtown Man­ as the result of questionable lawsuits. Fed­ cause cancer in humans. And it continues Before Septem- hattan. City health officials, the Occupa­ eral Mogul, which fell some weeks ago, to debate incredibly stringent and. costly 1 of Congress’s tional Safety and Health Administration wasn’t even an asbestos manufacturer, new arsenic rules, even though there is ho. trying to “do and, most importantly, the Environmental but had the bad luck of inheriting one in a real proof that this would save lives. n schools that deal. With hundreds of thou­ Sept. 11 put things in perspective. Amer-' T cities, not at Protection Agency, landed on the scene to corporate sands of lawsuits pending, many people leans have now seen what it is like to deal 1 r all that the conduct next was air-quality tests. What they did nothing less than astonishing: with legitimate, serious illnesses have with real risks: of bioterrorism, of plane ; past 30 years, They said it was safe to be downtown. been shortchanged as plaintiff’s lawyers hijackings, of falling skyscrapers; ' ly time left for rush to file suits for people who haven’t Whether or not we have a one-in-a-million ,. metic. Anyone For anyone who knows the history of nd through this these agencies, such proclamations are lated disease. shown any symptoms of an asbestos-re­ chance' of getting cancer from trace levels of a substance is now a particularly silly,. lened to the akin to heresy. For decades, the EPA has taken the lead in zero-tolerance policies In fact, scientists today actually know question. Americans, today, need to be able to make sound and reasonable health s ago when it toward any “carcinogenic” substance un­ some real things about asbestos. A natu­ decisions. We should be able to look to our 1001 system in lucky. enough to have caught its rally occurring mineral, asbestos comes in public health organizations for the truth ancient, intact eye-whether it be pesticides, Hudson several forms: “Blue” asbestos, because of about risks, not paranoid overstatement. 1 srous exercise River PCBs or asbestos. This draconian its fiber type, shape and size, is consid­ :ts was fantas- approach has served to encourage un­ ered most dangerous. “White” asbestos, Ms. Strassel is an assistant feaiares^-: the mandates founded health scares, and created an en­ used in the WTC, constitutes over 90% of at the Journal. Ha- OpinionJoumal.com needs, a nice vironment in which people no longer asbestos products in place in the U.S. and tor column ap^ec^ tm alternate TTiursdays. iff, exhausting make rational decisions about health is far less harmful. Asbestos is associated idgets. We im- risks. It has also led to the nightmare of with three major diseases-asbestosis, ual education trial lawyers, lawsuits and corporate lung canc,er and mesothelioma. Nearly all ’ dated condom bankruptcies. of these ailments, however, strike people THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. old New York But on Sept, il, as with so many things, who, largely for occupational reasons, Peter R. Kann ither Has Two the EPA’s world changed. Faced with a were exposed to asbestos at high levels Publisher self-indulgent - public health .scare that could have sent and oyer a long period of time. For every ­ Chairman & CEO, Dow Jones & Company schools could thousands in Manhattan fleeing the city or one else, the risks are extremely low: . ^ we know, jamming hospitals, the EPA decided to Should you simply, sit in a building contain­ Paul E. Steiger Robert L. Bartley ,' cough up the truth about asbestos. Its offi­ ing,asbestos, you are mope likely to be hit Managing Editor Ed^r_ •olice, another cials bent over backward to get out the by lightning than you are to die a prema­ ion, have be- message that asbestos was harmful only if ture death from asbestos. Stephen J. Adler ■ PaolAGigot ■ ire September breathed at high levels and over sustained Byron E. Colome Editorial Page Editor ■ For all these reasons, it made sense for to us as gun- periods of time. When reporters pointed EPA head Christie Whitman to offer her Daniel Hertzberg Daniel Henninger 3. Reasonable Joanne Lipman Dqtuty Editorial soothing words about downtow. By about degraded into out that some of the tests had exceeded the three weeks after the collapse, the EPA Deputy Managing Editors Page Editor . e recruitment EPA’s safety levels, the agency hurried to had taken 442 air samples, only 27 of which explain that this was a “stringent stan­ showed levels of asbestos above its most Vice Presidents iblepost-Sep- dard based on long-term exposure” and stringent standards. Many readings were Danforth W. Austin General Manager . l1 lawyers’ pi- repeated that the public was not at any taken in the immediate WTC site, and sam- Thomas G. Hetzel Circulation * Idn’t sue any- real risk. pies outside that area were even. lower.' ■ Stephen B. Howe C. Lehner Aduerti^ . ter. Even they The EPA’s truthful words went only so ’The main risks, if any, are posed to the Urban Michael F. Sheehan . Business Development Production; of law, origi- far to contain fear. Some have still refused emergency workers, although they have Kristin A. Tennent Technology id judge com­ to move home or return to work. But that’s been warned to wear protective masks. It atch metasta- pot surprising, given the agency’s history is a shame that the truth has emerged only Richard J. Tofol Assistant to the Publisher luntlng, with with asbestos. Over the past few decades, in the course of.a catastrophe, and that the stoloc^cops ‘ there probably has not been a substance EPA had to expend so much energy calm-' Published since 1889 by to avoid be- more likely to strike irrational fear in a ing a public that should have known the DOW JONES & COMPANY :pot. public’s heart, and'the EPA bears a lot of facts long ago. st now about the blame., The downtown scare, and others like it, Executive Vice Presidents: Peter G. Skinner, 5 back,” How The war against asbestos started in the has frustrated scientists. They point out General Counsel; Richard P. Zanniita, Chief Financial' ■ ike back the 1950s, when a scientist, Irving Selikoff, that untold sums of public money have Officer. 3S. churches, found links between cancer and workers in gone toward eradicating a nonexistent Senior Vice Presidents: L. Gordon Croyitz, sional associ- asbestos-using industries.' Asbestos was Electronic Publishing, James H. Ottaway Jr., even media) used in everything from walls and floors to health problem, money that could have Chairman, Ottaway Newspapers. because we hotpads and hairdryers. The EPA jumped been better spent on practically any pub­ Presidents/Operating Groups: Karen Elliott House, tic-buUies,'to in by the 1970s, with dire warnings that lic good. And that doesn’t evaluate the International; Paul J. Ingrassia, Newswires; David E. sorts of self- asbestos should be eradicated. Schools, bigger cost to society. Says Elizabeth M. Moran, IndexesfElatronic Ventures; Joseph Richter, Whelan, president of the American Coun- Ottaway Newspapers; Scott D. Schulman, Consumer ma long way public institutions and homeowners spent . cil on Science and Health: “Every mo- EleOronic Publishing. s germs, but billions in removal. By the 1980s, better - ment we waste scaring our kids about hy- Vice Presidents: William A Godfrey m, Jkchnology, a feeling out science said the risks were greatly exag- pothetical ------ risks like those posed by trace IRichard Steven Goldstein, Corporate Communications; J. Levine, Newswires; Ann Mark^ Dorothea lerica might gerated. But the EPA continue to insist exposure to asbestos, is a moment we Coccoli Falsho, Marketing, Guy A Nardo,' General in too many on tough rules for everyone from building could be focusing on real health risks, like Services; James A Scaduto, Human liesources; so. But if so, planners to haulers. smoking, not wearing seatbelts or not us- Rosemary C. Spano, Law, Christopher W. Viet^ ation of civic In the 1990s, even the EPA was begin- ing bike helmets. Public health policies Finance ow about de- hihg to wonder what it had unleashed. A should focus on established risks, not OmflOMES 10 call them- report the EPA did itself in 1992 suggested phantom risks.” tart showing the agency had mismanaged the affair. Indeed, public health agencies should Editorial and Corporate Headquarters: 4300 Route 1 South Brunswick, NJ. 08852. Telephone (609) letween com- But by this time a fearful public, but­ learn from this event, and start to come North, 520-4000. Subscription Services: Catt l-8bO-JOURNAL, nse. tressed by a bureaucracy of labor unions, clean on other zero-threshold policies to- or go to http://services.wsj.cotn.

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