http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0903-01.htm
Published on Wednesday,
September 3, 2003 by The
Free Press (Columbus, Ohio)
Bush to New Yorkers: Drop Dead
by Harvey Wasserman
George W. Bush has officially told the people of New York City
that as far as he's concerned, they can drop dead. And thanks
to his lies, many of them will.
With his latest attack
on the Clean Air Act he's said the same
to millions more.
Bush has used the 9/11
"trifecta" to build his popularity,
fund the military and tear up the Bill of Rights. But the
GOP's cynical uses of the tragedy have gone to a new level.
The White House directly
interfered with planned Environmental
Protection Agency warnings about the toxic fallout from the
World Trade Center explosions. It had "competing considerations"
that came before protecting the health of the people of New York.
Among them were re-opening the stock exchange as quickly as
possible, and limiting clean-up costs and liability claims.
Because of Bush's lies,
thousands of Americans will suffer
cancers, emphysema, heart attack, stroke, birth defects,
stillbirths, sterility, eye/ear/nose/throat disease and
much more.
There have been few
toxic events to match the explosions
that pulverized the two World Trade Center towers. The
short-term deaths of three thousand people will be dwarfed
over the long term by the lethal fallout.
These were two of the
last big buildings constructed with
asbestos, whose health effects are infamous. Once ingested,
the fibers can and do make cells cancerous. Thousands of miners
and others exposed to asbestos have filed lawsuits against
Johns-Manville and others.
The EPA knew that spewing
all that asbestos into New York's
air was a horrific event, and that lives could be saved
by taking certain public precautions. Bush stopped that
from happening.
The WTC also contained
countless computer screens, light
fixtures, calculators, telephones, network servers, paging
systems, copy machines and much more high-tech office
equipment laden with mercury and other toxic metals.
The concrete, flooring, plastics, chemical cleaners,
furniture, metal struts, window glass---all that was
also pulverized into a horrific brew of murderous dioxins,
furans and lethal powders with hideous killing power.
Where did it all come
down? Who has breathed it?
How many were elderly? Who might be uniquely sensitive?
How many were pregnant, with vulnerable embryos?
How far did their lethal powder spread through the region?
Where is it now? How long will those poisons kill again
and again and yet again? What could be done to prevent
further sickness and death?
As the EPA knew, those
living nearby were owed detailed
information denied them by Bush. So were those working
in the ruins for days, weeks and months. And those who
have innocently proceeded with lives downwind.
At very least, people
working on or near the site should
have been wearing respirators. All downwind buildings
should have been intensely monitored. Many should have
been fitted with advanced filtration units. All carpeting,
furniture, walls and fixtures should have been repeatedly
measured and cleaned. And then cleaned again. And then
cleaned yet again.
But such things cost
money. And some buildings might
never have reopened. And the stock market might have
stayed shut longer.
Lives would have been
saved, but Bush decided they were
less valuable than those competing considerations.
Now he's decimated
the Clean Air Act, allowing more power
plant emissions in yet another give-away to the rich
corporations that fund the GOP. So more Americans will die.
But Bush will have more money to spend on his 2004 re-election
campaign.
This man has horribly
wronged the people of New York,
whose terrible tragedies he continues to exploit.
He puts us all at risk in exchange for campaign
contributions.
New Yorkers---all Americans---suffer
and die as a result.
It's a debt that can never be repaid.
Harvey Wasserman
is senior editor of www.freepress.org
and co-author (with Bob Fitrakis) of 'THE SUPERPOWER OF PEACE'.
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