http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0823-03.htm

Published on Saturday, August 23, 2003 by the Long Island, NY Newsday
EPA Misled Public on 9/11 Pollution
White House ordered false assurances on air quality, report says

by Laurie Garrett

[ See original photograph from article of World Trade Center burning... ]

CAPTION:
"BUSH ADMINISTRATION: NYC AIR 'SAFE TO BREATHE'
The Statue of Liberty stands in the foreground as New York
is shrouded in smoke and pollution in New York image made
from television, Tuesday Sept. 11, 2001. (ABC via APTN)"

NEW YORK -- In the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the
World Trade Center, the White House instructed the Environmental
Protection Agency to give the public misleading information,
telling New Yorkers it was safe to breathe when reliable
information on air quality was not available.

That finding is included in a report released Friday by the
Office of the Inspector General of the EPA. It noted that
some of the agency's news releases in the weeks after the
attack were softened before being released to the public:
Reassuring information was added, while cautionary information
was deleted.

"When the EPA made a September 18 announcement that the
air was 'safe' to breathe, it did not have sufficient data
and analyses to make such a blanket statement," the report
says. "Furthermore, the White House Council on Environmental
Quality influenced . . . the information that EPA communicated
to the public through its early press releases when it convinced
EPA to add reassuring statements and delete cautionary ones."

On the morning of Sept. 12, according to the report,
the office of then-EPA Administrator Christie Whitman
issued a memo: "All statements to the media should be
cleared through the NSC (National Security Council in
the White House) before they are released." The 165-page
report compares excerpts from EPA draft statements
to the final versions, including these:

The draft statement contained a warning from EPA scientists
that homes and businesses near ground zero should be cleaned
by professionals. Instead, the public was told to follow
instructions from New York City officials.

Another draft statement was deleted; it raised concerns
about "sensitive populations" such as asthma patients,
the elderly and people with underlying respiratory diseases.

LEVELS OF ASBESTOS

A statement about discovery of asbestos at higher than safe
levels in dust samples from lower Manhattan was changed to
state that "samples confirm previous reports that ambient
air quality meets OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health
Administration) standards and consequently is not a cause
for public concern."

Language in an EPA draft stating that asbestos levels
in some areas were three times higher than national standards
was changed to "slightly above the 1 percent trigger for
defining asbestos material."

This sentence was added to a Sept. 16 news release: "Our tests
show that it is safe for New Yorkers to go back to work in
New York's financial district." It replaced a statement that
initial monitors failed to turn up dangerous samples.

A warning on the importance of safely handling ground zero
cleanup, due to lead and asbestos exposure, was changed
to say that some contaminants had been noted downtown but
"the general public should be very reassured by initial
sampling."

The report also notes examples when EPA officials claimed
that conditions were safe when no scientific support was
available.

New York's leaders responded with dismay.

Rep. Jerry Nadler, a Manhattan Democrat, called for a
Justice Department investigation. "That the White House
instructed EPA officials to downplay the health impact
of the World Trade Center contaminants due to 'competing
considerations' at the expense of the health and lives of
New York City residents is an abomination," he said in a
news release.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said in an interview it was
"understandable that in the midst of a crisis the White House
did not want the EPA to sound alarmist." But, he warned,
"If the public loses faith that things are safe when the
government says so, we'll have done more damage than a
pointed statement the week after 9/11 would have."

The White House did not respond to requests for comment.

EPA CHIEF

Acting EPA Administrator Marianne Horinko, who sat in on
EPA meetings with the White House during the attack's
aftermath, said in an interview that the White House had
played a coordinating role, assembling information from
various federal agencies.

"It was a role someone had to play," Horinko said.
"There was a potential for a Tower of Babel, and
we needed to speak with one voice."

The National Security Council played the key role,
filtering incoming data on ground zero air and water,
Horinko said. "I think that the thinking was, these are
experts in WMD (weapons of mass destruction), so they
should have the coordinating role."

The focus at EPA, she continued, was on gathering data
and making it public as rapidly as possible.

"Under unbelievably trying conditions, EPA did the best
that it could," she said.

Copyright © 2003 Newsday

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