From DailyKos:
White House Changed EPA Report About Ground Zero
The story about the dangerous air and water problems in post-9/11 Manhattan is still unfolding, and Newsweek has published more troubling info in a web exclusive.
But first, lets take a look back...
One week after the WTC towers fell, Christie Whitman (then Chief of the EPA) declared that the air and water in New York were safe, and residents were urged to return to their homes and jobs in Manhattan. Two years later, Nikki Tinsley (the EPA's Inspector General) told NBC News that the EPA press release that sent New Yorkers back to those homes and offices "was surely not telling all of the truth."
From NBC News
CHANGED PRESS RELEASES
So what happened? Tinsley's report charges, in the crucial days after 9/11, the White House changed EPA press releases to "add reassuring statements and delete cautionary ones."
*Sept. 13: The EPA draft release -- never released to the public -- said: EPA "testing terrorized sites for environmental hazards." The White House changed that to EPA "reassures public about environmental hazards."
*Sept. 16: The EPA draft said: "Recent samples of dust ... on Water Street show higher levels of asbestos."
The White House version: "New samples confirm ... ambient air quality meets OSHA [government] standards" ... and "is not a cause for public concern."
And the White House left out entirely the warning "that air samples raise concerns for cleanup workers and office workers near Water St."
Now it turns out that the dust from the WTC attacks was even more toxic than researchers initially realized, and that a wide range of health problems have developed because of exposure to it.
John Graham is a carpenter with emergency medical technician training, and he was only a few blocks from the World Trade Center when the first plane hit. He immediately went down to Ground Zero, and his unique combination of carpentry and medical skills made him an asset there for more than nine months, where he continued to help in spite of his own mounting health problems.
John Graham was rarely ill before 9/11.
From Newsweek
Now Graham carries a bag full of medications around with him each day. He takes 17 different drugs for ailments ranging from asthma to chronic infections, and sees his doctor so often that he's had to ask the receptionist to call and remind him of upcoming appointments so he can keep track.
---snip---
Doctors and researchers now believe that Graham is one of tens of thousands who suffer debilitating health problems stemming from their exposure to contaminants in the air around the World Trade Center site--and it's not just rescue and recovery workers who are affected. A report published this month in the journal "Environmental Health Perspectives" found that pregnant women who were inside the Twin Towers or within a 10-block radius at the time of the attacks showed a two-fold increase in the incidence of smaller-than-average infants compared to pregnant women in a demographically similar population who weren't in Manhattan on September 11.
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Click the link above and read the whole goddamn thing. Evil, lying bastards.
