E-P-A influenced by White House on post-9/11 air quality statements (CBS)

(Washington-AP)

The Environmental Protection Agency's internal watchdog says White House officials pressured the agency to prematurely assure the public that the air was safe to breathe a week after the World Trade Center collapse.

The agency's initial statements in the days following the 9-11 attacks were not supported by proper air quality monitoring data and analysis, the E-P-A's inspector general, Nikki Tinsley, says in a 155-page report.

For example, the report found, the E-P-A was convinced to omit from its early public statements guidance for cleaning indoor spaces and tips on potential health effects from airborne dust containing asbestos, lead, glass fibers and concrete. ---


We are going to change history -- we're going to have a ton of fun doing it.

I have a cousin with breathing problems and who bled from the eyes and whose skin flaked off because of the clean air at the WTC. (He is a cop, who had to search through the rubble at Fresh Kills)

He gets no compensation and now I hear of this SHIT.

tax dollars and then they couldn't have their homes in the Hamptons!!

All the manipulating is in the "honors, medals and platitudes". Those are easy. It's the "We'll take care of you because you took care of us" that is hard to come by.

another medical bill. Ever.

Where the hell did all that donated money go?

it then had to be wanting it to be true or on crack.

How many thing Guliani had anything to do with that? Think he would have been in on that decision in the interest of keeping the dollar going and the people at work?

that Guiliani had LOTS to do with it.

invertebrate to show up at "ground zero"?

I remember it as not very soon after the attacks.

but the air was still bad when he got here. Since he didn't stay very long, I'm sure he's okay.

and criminal charges. In the days following 9/11 people already injured by chemicals were yelling for precautions to be taken to protect the people of New York. The EPA was issuing false reports and the medical society that would assist in such an incident - the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (i.e., corporate medical directors) turned a deaf ear. Instead - ACOEM issued position papers on handling "stress" while people were exposed to health hazards.

Afraid to say but this is business as usual when it comes to environmental health threats. Better to have sick people, uncompensated or medically untreated than to risk liability for insurance companies etc.

Not only was I envloped by the noxious cloud from both collapses, but I live right over the river in brooklyn (it stank here for 3 weeks) AND I got to return to work in lower Manhattan (south of Wall Street) on monday, septmber 17, 2001; the stench of burning whatever was horrendous, and it kept up through late October. i also distinctly remember the firm-wide meeting on that Monday, in which the Managing Partner assured everybody that the EPA had Ok'd the air quality. there was a universal guffaw at that one, despite the serious circumstances, since it couldn't possibly be true - the air was terrible, and we all knew what was in it.

So, looks like I have plenty to look forward to, healthwise. The obvious problem, of course, was that they simply could NOT keep THE financial district of the United States closed for any length of time. The dictates of th iron system, despite th airy pretensions of the computer fanatics, need actual bodies on the ground and in action. Workers in a particular firm I know about (but I'm hesitant to name) were in work 9/12 - not in their lower Manhattan offices, but in an emergency office that always stands at the ready, to keep the gears of the system working, or rather, to keep the flow of capital, well, flowing. MARS may need women. Capital needs laboring bodies, and ain't no bad air, poisoning or cancer risk gwine keep those bodies out the fields, sho nuf. To close Lower Manhattan for any additional time would have meant near collapse. Capital needs bodies on the ground, but the bodies are always subordinated to the iron system: Spare parts are easy to come by....

I worked on Wall st. and the cough stopped only after I was laid off and stopped going down there....

Adjacent to the WTC site just SIX WEEKS after 9/11. How nice that he could have a bagful of asbestos particles in his lungs...and still not know anything about it? :mad:

Dub really ISN'T a uniter or a divider--he really IS a DESTROYER!!!:grr:

B-)

"The E-P-A inspector general recommends that the E-P-A adopt new procedures so its public statements on health risks and environmental quality are supported by data and analysis."

Now, wouldn't you think any sane person would have put those policies in place when the EPA was created? Seems like common sense...

HENCE THE LIES!!!!! GOd get me out of this terrible nightmare of the Bushco!!!!

children behind treatment of the teachers and prinicples, to intimidating the CIA for their phony ass war, to the EPA playing with these heroes health.

This neds to be used against them. All their talk of the brave police and firemen in front of the cameras, then pulling this shit behind the scenes. These people could not give a rat's ass about anybody but their rich backers.

I heard on NPR about a week or so ago about this subject. Many of the workers, particularly after a few days when they were told that the air quality was ok, were not wearing their masks.(Not that those flimsy ass things would have helped much.) Many of those now are DISABLED.

We are nothing but slaves and cannon fodder to those bastards.

W.R. Grace Mining. Too bad Grace's 3 enviromental guys had to die in that small plane accident awhile back. Who knows what they had in those brifecases

Haliburton purchased a company (was it Johns-Manville?), that was involved over asbestos law suits. The accounting scandal was that they discounted the contingent liability from those cases. However, if asbestoes from that company were present in ANY of the collapsed buildings, then the liability of Haliburton's purchase could have been astronomical.

Am I on the right track?

The mining engineers? I don't know about them, what's the story?

There's a Bush Family tie-in with Dresser (and with Halliburton??) that I'm not remembering, but it goes waaaaay back.

I don't know that there's any connection of Halliburton or Dresser with W.R. Grace, but it's my understanding that Grace had liability re asbestos in the WTC towers. LOTS of it.

Eloriel

the asbestos liability issue just didn't know the name of the company.

What about the engineers and the plane crash?

big time. He and Patty Murry were trying very hard to get findings by the EPA made public about them. Well we all know that there's now been a delay in that. The 3 men from Grace that died in that plane crash were enviromental guys amd I think it was in South Carolina. Small plane into a building. They were on their way to a meeting out west. This was talked about in GD awhile ago don't remember when. W. R. Grace are the largest poluters on the face of the earth. There's something in their vermiculite like asbestos that is in almost every home in this country and the Twin Towers were full of it. They don't want the report out because it will cost them billions to clean up.

Grrrr so basicly they would help make the quality of life worse for all americans just to make a buck...These guys need to GO in 04!!!!

I said to people out here in CA when this happened, watch the trends in lung disease in NYC and in the WTC drift pattern. I had know by the age of the WTC that they had asbestos in them. When it all went up in a cloud it did nothing but spread the stuff. Give it 10 years and you will see a tremendous increase in the number of lung cancers and other respiratory problems. With out reading any EPA stuff, this pissed me off just becuse of the neglect by the government. I have seen the effect of dust on the Asthma cases out here in the central valley of CA. That is just plain old, mother nature made, healthy dirt. That synthetic crap I don't trust as far as I can throw.

In Manhattan there is the Irving Selikoff Occupational Environmental Clinic at Mt Sinai Hospital. Dr. Selikoff is the one who discovered the mechanism of disease from asbestos. His work caused the construction of the trade towers to cleanup as they were getting asbestos all over the placeduring construction.

Anyway - Dr. Selikoff celebrated his discovery as a breakthrough in the cause of many illnesses - interference by environmental factors causing disease. He has since died and the clinic named after him.

Sad to say that when EPA was issuing their bogus reports, doctors from the Selikoff Clinic were backing up the EPA. Believe me - the doctors of occ-med, except for a few, are crooked too. The asbestos lobbyists were out faster than the doctors blaming the collapse of the towers on lack of asbestos. Dr. Selikloff wqould have been horrified.

The injured from New York will be shuffled through the system into the mental health area. They will be labeled malingerers and people attempting to rip off the system - yes firefighters and police too. They will be told that their respiratory illnesses should have cleared by now. They will not receive adequate medical care, their lives will have been ruined they will show up as "mentally ill" statistics.

This is how corporate America controls liability - with the help of the medical community.

I've been approached to write a chapter for an upcoming book on environmental health (in this case, the long-term impacts of high-pollution events). I picked the WTC as one of the case studies we need to cover ... people have been trying to dissuade me, saying that "it turned out to be exaggerated", but this gives me a new reason to keep on with the research.

It's amazing what the bfee is doing to the environment without being checked.

considered "better on National Security" than the Dems - they use it...liberally.

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAQ0A0SOJD.html

MSNBC story here.

Read the opening paragraph:
At the White House’s direction, the Environmental Protection Agency gave New Yorkers misleading assurances that there was no health risk from the debris-laden air after the World Trade Center collapse, according to an internal inquiry.

There's no sugarcoating. No 'may have' or 'claims.' This is unequivocal. This is the first time I've ever seen such a thing.

ANYBODY BUT bUSH in 2004!

Nothing will come of this because the press is bought and paid for. Will there be a Congressional investigation? No! Why? Because the investigation into 9/11 is being stonewalled and stalled to kill the clock. Besides, how many other investigations could there be into this Crime Family masquerading as a Presidential Administration? Too numerous to count.

...just on what basis so many still refuse to see that this administration is thoroughly evil?

:grr:

"At least about 100 tons of asbestos were used in the construction of the WTC and had not yet been fully removed.
After a drawn out court battle over insurance, in May 2001 the cost for the asbestos removal from the properties of
the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (including the New York airports and the WTC) was estimated
at $600 million. The attacks released dense clouds of dust into the air of Manhattan, and samples of the residue
have shown small percentages of asbestos. As the incubation period for asbestos-related diseases is up to 30 years
after inhalation, some citizens living in affected areas may suffer long term effects.

Asbestosis
The fine particles released from asbestos fibres are easily inhaled, and can cause a number of respiratory complaints
generally known as asbestosis. This term includes cancers of the throat, lungs and abdomen.

In the United States, asbestos was one of the first hazardous air pollutants regulated under Section 112 of the Clean Air Act of 1970."

http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11,_2001_Terrorist_Attack
http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asbestos

TYY

http://tombotte.com/news/wtc/damage_asbestos.htm

TYY

WTC trucks had wrong dust filters

New York Daily News
By KENNETH R. BAZINET
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON - A private contractor hired to clean up asbestos-tainted dust near Ground Zero in the days
after Sept. 11 failed to use required filters on its vacuum trucks, a federal report shows.

Feds discovered the lapse three weeks later and ordered the contractor, Earth Technology Inc., to go back and
sweep the streets again, according to a report by the Environmental Protection Agency inspector general
obtained by the Daily News.

Earth Technology's contract with the EPA required the use of so-called high efficiency particulate air filters,
which are capable of trapping particles so tiny they can't be seen by the human eye. They keep the particles,
which ordinary vacuums wouldn't catch, from escaping the vacuum trucks and seeping back into the air.

But for the first five days of the cleanup, starting Sept. 14, the 10 trucks that sucked up dust in streets of the
Financial District and around Battery Park City didn't have the HEPA filters.

During the cleanup, which ended Oct. 15, thousands of people passed through the area, including rescue
workers, volunteers and military personnel involved in the recovery effort.

More: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/local/story/11013p-10416c.html

TYY

From the August 14, 2002 story . . .

Probe of EPA chief

EPA internal investigators learned of the failure to use the HEPA filters during interviews in an unrelated
conflict-of-interest probe of EPA Administrator Christie Whitman. She was accused of making assurances the
air quality in lower Manhattan was safe to protect the stock portfolio of her husband, who had interests in
two companies in the area.

More: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/local/story/11013p-10416c.html

9/11 Firefighter Contracted Rare Pneumonia
Inhaled ash from World Trade Center thought to be the cause

By Janice Billingsley
HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 18 (2002) (HealthDayNews) -- By going
the extra mile to diagnose the cause of a New York
City firefighter's illness, doctors may have uncovered
the cause of a rare type of pneumonia.

Dr. William N. Rom, a lung specialist at the New York
University School of Medicine, treated the 38-year-old
fireman, who was suffering from respiratory failure.
The fireman, part of the 9/11 World Trade Center disaster response team, had
been working 16-hour days for 13 days, inhaling huge amounts of dust and
debris.

Although the fireman responded well to the combination of antibiotics and
cortosteroids Rom had prescribed, the doctor still wasn't satisfied that he'd
determined the cause of the illness. So, he performed another procedure to
specifically diagnose what was in the fireman's lungs.

<snip>

By testing the contents of the fireman's lungs in a procedure called a
bronchoalveolar lavage, Rom identified the inhaled particles that were filling his
respiratory system. He also found white blood cells that are a marker for a
seldom-seen disease. The result was a diagnosis of acute eosinophilic pneumonia,
a rare non-bacterial type of pneumonia.

Rom's report on the finding appears in the September issue of the American
Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

"The pneumonia was most likely due to fly ash," Rom says, adding that fly ash
comes from gypsum from the wallboard used in buildings. The fireman also had
fiberglass particles and asbestos fibers in his lungs.

Acute eosinophilic pneumonia is very rare, Rom says.

More: http://www.healthscoutnews.com/view.cfm?id=509135

TYY

TYY :kick:

I know, you would think this is big. You would think that there would be outrage from middle America. But there won't be. The sheeple are more than willing to swallow lies as long as somebody tells them that the old white men are looking out for thier best interest.
The sheeple deserve to choke on asbestos and eat meat contaminated with fecal matter, because they would rather be lied to than face the cold, hard world.

And I invite the first person who objects to the term "sheeple" to prove me wrong. Show me the outrage. Show me where the people stood up to deadly lies and said "enough".

The Sheeple won't care"

Im not sure you are right this time. Last nite on a short road trip I heard George Noory on Coast to Coast radio show read
what he said over and over was a very disturbing report. He read the
article and was truly upset over this, the fact that this came from the whitehouse. The part about how the
whitehouse said it was for national security made him really stumble.

That same show had a guy who was a famous hacker interviewed who was asked by a caller about electronic
voting and its infallibility. He said NO, the systems can be hacked.
George Noory should have Bev Harris on. Any Coast listeners with influence should try and get her on.

tib

Needed more time with her family? yeah,right. Anyway this made the front page of NY Newsday : "WHITE HOUSE MISLEAD NY" in big bold print. http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/nyc-epa0823,0,3199733.story?coll=ny-top-headlines
Alot of really pissed off people here today. Bush proves once again what a liar he is.

Until the LIARS are throw out of office, New Yorkers should stop
all Tax Payments. Why the fuck should anyone pay into a Govn't
that OFFICIALLY LIES to the Population..

If this doesn't rise to the level of IMPEACHMENT, then fucking nothing
does....

then let go for sounding the alarm.

http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12800/story.htm

Below is the EPA's spin on how the WH was involved.

Marianne L. Horinko, EPA's acting administrator, said in a telephone interview Friday that the inspector general's report said the White House's role was mainly to help EPA sift through an enormous amount of information.

"We put out the best information we had, based on just the best data that we had available at the time," said Horinko, who headed the agency's Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response, which oversaw the World Trade Center environmental monitoring and cleanup.

LIES, LIES, LIES
They fired Piotr Chemielinski and anyone else that told the truth about the air quality. Is that sifting the data?

Here's the truth.
http://911.gmu.edu/objects/104.pdf

critical derelection of duty. This is astounding news that in another day and time would be the basis for a call for impeachment. It is amazing to me the folks in the "red states" have their heads in the sand or so far up Bush's *ss that they don't realize that the safety and health of citizens is unimportant to this administration. Just because this happened in NYC doesn't mean that something similar is not or could not take place in their own back yards. Hazardous waste dumping, toxic run off, nuclear waste, etc. Wonder if some of it isn't already in their backyards?

While everybody was down there inhaling the debris trying to save people they were giving themselves a death sentence themselves.

and US Government allowed them to do it! I told Republican friends this long ago and I told them Know way would I live in New York after this disaster and they replied New Yorkers will live ANYWHERE

they don't care!

Well when they start dying they just might see that this disaster at 9/11 was Bigger and had more casualties than thought!

It only takes one Asbestos fiber to be inhaled in the lung to kill ya

We will be seeing more deaths soon and No denying it! Asbestosis is hard to hide! Thats why the EPA is coming out cause they know soon the evidence of this administrations absolute careless concern of workers trying to save their colleagues was mishandled and so
maybe when many die of asbetosis they will remember the Bush administration!:puke:

I hope the entire FDNY and NYPD show up protesting the fucking LIAR!!!

Bush is too stoopid to realize that one floating microscopic asbestos fiber in the air could have landed in his lung when he was down there at ground zero! ....In his toopid mind he figured a small amount of exposure would be safe.


Is Anybody Safe there even NOW! :bounce:

They need to flood the streets and the cops need to join them and not be the ones to beat them back---after all, the cops are one of the main groups to be screwed. Goddamnit New Yorkers, march. I'd love to see NYC in such a state come GOP convention time that it has to be covered by the media around the world. I hope everyone doesn't just smile, be polite and kiss these freaks asses in order to make some bucks off the event. Give them hell New York. Make them wish they never used you as their red, white and blue backdrop.

will encourage them to do just that.

The Air Is Thick With Lies

http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/newyork/columnists/ny-nybres243426639aug24,0,633665.column?coll=ny-ny-columnists

If they even have the audacity to show their faces there for the convention after this. They probably still will since they know no shame. :mad: :mad: :mad:

Plane Crashes, WR Grace, Deadly Asbestos, WTC Collapse & Wellstone:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum/duboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=5471&forum=DCForumID43

how could I have forgotten that! Thanks stickdog

Just a little info

Saying it cn't handle the flood of asbestos personal injury lawsuits.....has filed for bankruptcy..

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported in Nov. 1999 that hundreds of people had died or become ill with asbestos-related disease from the Libby mine.

It is estimated that hospitalization, oxygen, medication and home care can cost a person between $300,000 to $500,000 during the coirse of the illness.

Most of the hundreds of thousands of pending asbestos suits are filed against mulitple defendants. The litigation will often list 10, 20 or more corporations that either produced asbestos or used it in products they manufactured.

The EPA is conducting investigations at 55 sites throughout the country where Grace ran expansion plants that turned the vericulite ore into insulation and garden and construction products...

..and plaintiffs in six national class-action suits filed on be-half of as many as 2 million homeowners who have used Zonolite attic insulation.

www.seattlepi.nwsource.com/printer/index.asp?ploc=b

Does anyone have a list of those 10, 20 companies?