September 15, 2003 press release

Co-sponsors of press conference include:

• Association of Legal Aid Attorneys (UAW 2325)
• NY Environmental Law and Justice Project
• Communications Workers of America, District One
• Rebuild with a Spotlight on the Poor
• From the Ground Up
• Professional Staff Congress
• Local 78 LIUNA (Asbestos & Lead Abatement Workers)
• Physicians for Social Responsibility (NYC)
• National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), Chapter 293
• Transport Workers Union, Local 100

Residents, workers, public health advocates and environmental leaders gathered September 15 at Federal Hall in lower Manhattan to call for action on the contamination caused by the September 11th attack on the World Trade Center.

Holding signs saying, "Clean Up, Not Cover Up," and echoing demands made by Senator Clinton and Congressman Nadler, the participants called for an investigation of why and how information critical to the health of New Yorkers and rescue workers was suppressed. They also urged a scientifically valid testing and cleanup program for all affected neighborhoods that includes both residences and workplaces, and a health care program for those suffering from WTC-related illnesses now and in the future.

Speakers cited the report by the Inspector General for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), released on August 21, 2003. That report documented the ways in which the White House softened EPA's originally intended warnings to the public on the hazards of the dust and fumes from the attack site. They also cited statements made at the recent conference of the American Chemical Society that the collapse of the towers released an unprecedented combination of chemicals, the full health consequences of which are impossible to predict.

Dr. Stephen Levin, co-director of the Mount Sinai-Selikoff Center for Occupational and Environmental Medicine, reported that his clinic and the WTC Worker and Volunteer Medical Screening Program have seen many individuals who developed respiratory illness caused by their exposures to the hazardous dust and smoke at and near the WTC site.

"For too many of these men and women, the EPA's false reassurance that the air quality in lower Manhattan was safe led to their being exposed much more than they otherwise would have been," said Dr. Levin. He noted that many people did not wear the respiratory protection that they really needed, or returned to their offices or homes "before it was in fact safe to do so." He stated, "This is a terrible public health consequence of the failure of the EPA to carry out its mission: to protect the health of the American people."

"When the White House interfered with the EPA's assessment of the toxic nature of the dust that was released by the collapse of the World Trade Center, it placed the health of Wall Street over the public's health" stated Joel Shufro, Executive Director of the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (NYCOSH). He said, "That action adversely affected the health of our democracy by denying our citizens the information they needed to make informed decisions."

Pawel Kedzior, representing the asbestos and lead abatement workers of Local 78 (LIUNA), recalled, "Although many scrupulous building owners immediately recognized the dangers posed by the multiple toxins in the dust, many more decided to ignore any responsibility to protect the occupants and the clean-up workers. These building owners and managers had a ready excuse whenever confronted by residents, commercial tenants, and unions: The EPA assured them the materials were safe." He stated, "What the EPA did – or failed to do – in the wake of the attacks on the World Trade Center is a national disgrace."

Toxic substances that have been found in some buildings include asbestos, lead, dioxin, silica, and mercury and other heavy metals. Participants noted the Daily News report that while the City Department of Environmental Protection asked owners of 1,073 residential and commercial buildings near Ground Zero to report on environmental tests and cleanup work, it received responses from less than a third of them -- only 354 buildings. The information request was issued over a year and a half ago, in February 2002, but the Daily News reported on September 11, 2003 that the City has not yet followed up on the remaining two thirds of the buildings.

"We never imagined that people who were the victims of a terrorist attack would be left without help to suffer the consequences of the 9/11 attack, including the toxic dust that infiltrated their apartments, schools and workplaces. Or that they would be abandoned by the EPA, the very agency charged with protecting their health," said Kimberly Flynn, of 9/11 Environmental Action. "We want answers from the White House, but we also need immediate action. Today, residents, workers, and students stand united in their demand for a real, science-based cleanup of ALL contaminated buildings – and we will not stop until EPA does the right thing."

Robert Gulack, a Securities and Exchange Commission employee and a member of the National Treasury Employees Union, recalled, "On September 11, 2001, the SEC's offices at 7 World Trade were destroyed. In October 2001, SEC management directed us to go to work at the Woolworth Building, just over a block from Ground Zero. Many of my colleagues fell ill soon after going to work in the Woolworth Building. Many of us continue to suffer from respiratory and other problems. I fell ill with asthma two days after coming to work in the building, and have continued to suffer ever since from repeated attacks of bronchitis. I have suffered six attacks of bronchitis in less than two years. The last such attack occurred last week. I was hospitalized for pneumonia a year ago. I continue to be on five prescription medications for my lungs, including twice daily doses of steroids."

"This is both a local issue and an issue of national security," declared Suzanne Mattei, Executive for the national field office of the Sierra Club in New York City. "Why should we allow the pollution from Osama Bin Laden's hateful attack to continue to threaten New Yorkers' health and safety? These hazards should be eliminated now." Reading a statement from Warren Berger, chair of the Sierra Club NYC Group's Air Pollution Committee, she added. "At a time of national emergency, people need to trust what the EPA says in order to protect their health and their family's health."

Jo Polett, a lower Manhattan resident diagnosed with reactive airways disease from exposure to WTC dust in her apartment, and a member of 9/11 Environmental Action, stated, " The exposures and illnesses that occurred because politics over-ruled science can't be undone. But people are still living, working and going to school in buildings contaminated by dust from the collapse. EPA must follow its Inspector General's recommendations and give us comprehensive testing and a real cleanup. How many illnesses are developing now while we wait?"

ADDENDUM: FURTHER STATEMENTS AND SPOKESPERSONS

Marie Christopher, Lower East Side resident, Rebuild with a Spotlight on the Poor, states:

"I live on the Lower East side. The day the World Trade Center came down, you could not go outside, because you simply would not have been able to breathe without coughing. It was that bad. You see, the cloud and the fumes blew our way too, and permeated my building.Yet the Lower East side has been ignored by the EPA, so there has been no testing and no cleanup for us. When the EPA suppressed the truth, they were behaving like politicians, not scientists. This agency is supposed to protect the health of the people, not the political agenda of the Bush administration.

Jim Gilroy, a lower Manhattan resident (cell 917 499-7751), states:

"Either the EPA or the Bush administration, or both, demonstrated a flagrant disregard for the truth, after 9/11. I am outraged because my wife and I brought our 3 and 1/2 year old daughter back to our lower Manhattan home soon after the EPA's announcements that the air was safe to breathe. We never would have done that if we had been given honest information.

Mr. Gilroy explains, "We were among those who wanted to be at home, so believing the lie, we came back and cleaned up our apartment ourselves. A year and a half later, the EPA finally did a cleaning of our apartment. I now find out from the Inspector General's report, that the passive air testing they did after the cleaning could not ensure that my home is truly free of contaminants.

Mr. Gilroy explains, "My wife and I are both sick. I had no respiratory problems before 9/11; my wife had occasional, mild asthma. Now we both have to use steroid inhalers daily. But my greatest worry is about my daughter's health and how the effects of the contamination she's been exposed to might manifest in 15 or 20 years."

Other spokespersons available to speak with the press included:

• Marc Ameruso, rescue worker
• Marcy Benstock, Clean Air Campaign
• Marie Christopher, Lower East Side resident, Rebuild with a Spotlight on the Poor
• Michael Cook, area resident
• Ariel Goodman, President, From the Ground Up
• Michael Hurwitz, Added Value, Brooklyn
• Ilona Kloupte, downtown resident
• Mae Lee, Chinese Progressive Association
• Kevin Logan, Senator, BMCC Student Government
• Mercedes Ruiz, President of Tenants Association 125 Eldridge St.
• Laura Unger, CWA Local 1150
• Jimmy Willis, Assistant to the President, TWU Local 100
• A representative of AALDEF (Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund)
• A member of the faculty at BMCC (and member of the Professional Staff Congress - PSC)
  

NYCOSH's 9/11-related work is conducted in partnership with the United Church of Christ's National Disaster Ministries, with additional support from the September 11th Fund created by the United Way of New York City and the New York Community Trust.