So as it turns out, breathing in the particulate residue of the World Trade Center buildings might not have been as healthy as the EPA led us all to believe. Who’d’a figured?
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency’s internal watchdog says White House officials pressured the agency to prematurely assure the public that the air was safe to breathe a week after the World Trade Center collapse.
The agency’s initial statements in the days following the September 11, 2001 attacks were not supported by proper air quality monitoring data and analysis, EPA’s inspector general, Nikki L. Tinsley, says in a 155-page report released late Thursday.
— snip —
For example, the report found, EPA was convinced to omit from its early public statements guidance for cleaning indoor spaces and tips on potential health effects from airborne dust containing asbestos, lead, glass fibers and concrete.
As someone who spent a few weeks breathing this crap, I am unimpressed. But hey, it’s not like Bush was going to get my vote anyway, so what does he care?
(Does anyone have a copy of that satellite photo which shows the plume of smoke heading straight from lower Manhattan to Brooklyn? I meant to save it but didn’t, and now I can’t find it anywhere.)
Update: got the image, thanks.