Ground zero pollution
How EPA and city ignore dangers
By Heather Cottin
Hundreds of thousands of residents and workers in the World
Trade Center area and lower Manhattan face serious health
problems resulting from the destruction of the Twin Towers. But
the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the New York
City Department of Health continue to deny any serious problems
with indoor or outdoor air quality in New York.
Officials from the EPA refused to show up at a hearing held
Feb. 23 to discuss the air quality at ground zero. A
spokesperson for Christine Todd Whitman, Bush's EPA head, said
the agency did "not believe ... hearings on this issue [would]
be productive" and dismissed them as "pure theater." (New York
Times, Feb. 24)
Rep. Jerrold Nadler accused federal and city officials of
"not upholding the law." Hugh Kaufman, chief investigator for
the EPA's national ombudsman, Robert Martin, agreed. "We've had
ombudsman hearings for years all over the country," he said,
"and never before have the government officials who've been
involved in the testing and work refused to show up. I think
they haven't shown up because they've got something to
hide."
That something to hide is an environmental catastrophe that
is making the "Big Apple" tick like a time bomb.
An amazing cocktail of pollutants
In October, the EPA and the U.S. Department of Energy
appointed a team of scientists from the University of
California at Davis to monitor and collect pollutants emanating
from the rubble of the trade center.
The first batch of samples was shipped for analysis on Nov.
5. Scientists found health threats such as inhalable particles,
toxic metals, asbestos and byproducts of burning plastic. Davis
professor Thomas Cahill analyzed the dust and smoke created by
the Twin Towers' collapse. He said the EPA had not tested for
very fine particles of substances like asbestos and could not
declare the air safe.
As this was emerging, the New York City Department of Health
was assuring New Yorkers that the area was indeed safe. On its
Web site the NYCDOH wrote, "Experts believe that the levels of
exposure to asbestos are low enough that the likelihood of
developing disease from the limited short-term exposures
associated with the WTC incident is very small."
It also said, "Contaminant levels in the environment do not
pose serious long-term health risks." Emboldened by its own
lies, it concluded, "Levels of fine and course Particulate
Matter have been within the EPA standards." (http:// www.
nyc.gov/health)
This was a patent lie, since there is no federal standard
for evaluating the health risk of ultra-fine particles in the
air.
What was released into the air when the Twin Towers burned
down? The building materials included asbestos, one of the most
highly toxic substances known. The W.T. Grace Co. sold a total
of 201,183 pounds of pure asbestos fiber to be used in building
the trade center. (http://www. lkaz.demon.co.uk/ban23.htm)
And Grace wasn't the only company that sold asbestos to the
developers of the towers. The British Asbestos Newsletter dated
Spring 1996 noted that T&N, Britain's largest manufacturer
of asbestos, had sold tons of the deadly material to the Port
Authority for use, among other venues, in the World Trade
Center.
The American Lung Association has said, "If asbestos should
become airborne and is inhaled, it can remain in the lungs for
a long period of time, producing the risk for severe health
problems several years later. The incubation time can last up
to 30 years. Health effects can include asbestosis, lung cancer
and other diseases, depending on the concentration." (http://
www.lungusa.org/air/envasbestos.html)
Asbestos is not the only pollutant menacing New York. The
burning of thousands of computers in the trade center released
lead particulates into the air. Each color computer monitor or
television display contains an average of four to eight pounds
of lead. Lead can cause severe allergies and even brain damage
in children, and has been banned as an additive to gasoline and
paint.
The EPA and the Board of Health have remained mum about this
danger as well.
Nor is the danger only to New Yorkers. Some 50 to 80 percent
of the electronic waste collected for recycling in the United
States is sent to China, India, Pakistan and other developing
countries, spreading the toxic results. (New York Times, Feb.
24) Imperialism is poisoning the Third World in seemingly
endless ways.
The U.S. Geological Survey also made a study of particulates
found in the air after Sept. 11. It found inorganic carbon,
carbonate carbon, and sulfur in the trade center dust. It also
found copper, lead, zinc, titanium, glass fibers containing
silicon, aluminum, calcium, magnesium, sodium, and other
elements; gypsum containing calcium and sulfate; concrete and
aggregate containing calcium and aluminum hydroxides, and a
variety of silicate minerals containing silicon, calcium,
potassium, sodium, and magnesium, as well as iron, aluminum,
titanium and other metals.
(http://geology.cr.usgs.gov/pub/open-file-reports/ofr-01-0429/chem1/)
These elements were vaporized and wafted through the air
into peoples' apartments and workplaces. Do they pose health
risks to people who inhaled, ate or touched them? The EPA and
New York City DOH are saying nothing.
Capitalism being itself
Why are government officials stone walling about revealing
the dangers to the public well-being caused by the burning of
the World Trade Center?
City and business officials are anxious to resell the
"prime" real estate in the area. Information indicating that
the burning has created a toxic environment for lower Manhattan
could depress real estate prices and cause panic in the
heartland of capitalism.
The NYC Department of Health mentioned a condition cynically
dubbed the "WTC cough." They assured New Yorkers it was a minor
problem. After 9/11 there was no declared health alert. No free
health care was made available for those exposed to the smoke
and dust from the disaster. Many immigrant workers were hired
to clean the dust out of offices at close to minimum wages,
provided with no special training or safety equipment--and then
not even paid by some employers.
The fact is, there is a health crisis resulting from 9/11,
and it is not going away. It may haunt the city for the next 30
years. It will also cost a great deal of money.
Despite all the sentimental concern they express for the
workers who survived or cleaned up the rubble of the World
Trade Center, it's business as usual for the bosses of New York
and Wall Street and their servants in federal and local
agencies. They are lying about the safety of the air, they are
ignoring the potential health crisis. They are maintaining this
conspiracy of silence because they are more concerned with
profits and prices than people.
Reprinted from the March 7, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
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