US LIED ABOUT 9/11 AFTERMATH DANGERS AT GROUND ZERO

[kpete]

EPA LETTER: US LIED ABOUT 9/11 AFTERMATH
IN NEW YORK; 'DEATH, DISABILITY RESULTED'

EPA scientist says agency hid dangers at ground zero from first responders, others

Brian Beutler
Published: Friday August 25, 2006

A scientist at the Environmental Protection Agency has written a letter to Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and other members of the New York congressional delegation blasting the EPA for hiding dangerous toxins from Ground Zero workers in the aftermath of 9/11, RAW STORY has learned.

The letter, written by Dr. Cate Jenkins and obtained by RAW STORY, claims that EPA-funded research on the toxicity of breathable alkaline dust at the site “falsified pH results” to make the substance appear benign, when it was, in reality, corrosive enough to cause first responders and other workers in lower Manhattan to later lose pulmonary functions and, in some cases, to die.

Jenkins writes:

"These falsifications directly contributed not only to emergency personnel and citizens not taking adequate precautions to prevent exposures, but also prevented the subsequent correct diagnosis of the causative agents responsible for the pulmonary symptoms. Thus, appropriate treatment was prevented or misdirected, and loss of life and permanent disability undoubtedly resulted."

The letter, as acquired by RAW STORY, follows:



more at:
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/EPA_Scientest_Alleges_WTC_Fraud_0825.html

[stop the bleeding]

1. thanks kpete

I was asking someone to post the letter - believe it or not I still can not figure that one out yet :)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1982324&mesg_id=1982324

[liberaldemocrat7]

20. Contact the former EPA administrator Christy Todd Whitman.

You can contact the former EPA administrator Chrity Tood Whitman at [e-mail]

EVEN moderate REPUBLIKLAN Party members leave people to die and suffer disease.

I wrote this letter on the 3rd of August after I got her mass mailing from her organization to get Republiklan members elected.



Hey Christy

Your lies about the air quality led many firefighters to suffer breathing and lung problems. You proud of yourself?

Newsday has coverage of firefighters suffering with lung and other breathing problems this week.

They blame the Bush administration despite your pronouncements that the NYC air appeared safe in the area where the towers collapsed.

When I was a young boy decades ago I knew that cigarette smoke irritated me even though I did not smoke. Do you really consider the public idiots that they would trust anyone who declares the air safe near the collapsed towers?

Yup it's your party too and the Republican party appears a party of people who don't care very much about the middle classes or the poor despite your protestations to the contrary.

With $3 a gallon gas, costly health care, etc people's wallets do not lie. With breathing problems the firefighters lungs don't lie either.

Do you really believe we have 4.9 per cent unemployment? Hah those figures appear fabricated. They don't count people who exhausted their unemployment benefits after 6 months and still seek work. Your party consists of rabid hypocritical fundies and uncaring uber laissez faire capitalists.

Shame on you.

[malaise]

2. Is there anything

this government hasn't lied about?

[KansDem]

13. This isn't a "government"

Governments exist for the benefit and welfare of the people who create them. What we have in DC is a mob of thugs and cutthroats who only serve themselves and who will lie and cheat if necessary.

[CountAllVotes]

3. kpete

:dem:

[nam78_two]

4. The EPA is nothing but a sham at this point

:puke:
All the decent scientists working their are revolted by what that agency has become.

I have many enviro. friends who went into govt environmental protecton agencies and became so disillusioned...The independent groups like Sierra Club, NWF,etc. are the only ones one can trust really....

What can one expect by a agency headed by the likes of Christie Todd Whitman, Gale :puke: Norton and now ugh Stephen-I-Like-to-use-children-as-test-subjects Johnson....

:puke:

We are all just test subjects :mad:

[MissWaverly]

5. New Yorkers deserve Justice

they deserve to have someone held accountable for lying to them that it was safe to return to
New York City after 9-11 and to work at Ground Zero; someone should do serious jail time for this.

[flyarm]

9. I am mad as hell because my beautiful son went up there for days after

9/11 and fed the firemen and first responders...

i am livid..and i call congress people almost every day and demand accountability..and i am told to calm down and not be so angry..

we have had my son checked and so far so good..but what about in his future..no one knows..

he is in his late 20's..

i am so angry...and fuck everyone who thinks i shouldn't be damn angry..

my son did it out of the goodness of his heart..and because i was a flight crew of one of the airlines involved..

and my son wanted to do something to represent my airline..

i am pissed every day about it..and we have known it for a couple years now..but the US media has been almost mute on it..
i hold them just as responsible!

fly

[MissWaverly]

11. can't Bush be impeached for this

He took an oath when he became president that he would preserve the Constitution, which in the
Preamble states ...promote the general Welfare. Well, lying about air quality after a disaster
is not promoting the general Welfare. This is not some big secret or something we can't prove
or need an investigation for. This is fact and people are dying as a result of this. I am
sorry that your son had to be exposed to a health risk due to the lies of this president.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

23. Not only doesn't the media cover this dear Fly, but it seems that many at

DU don't seem to care as well. Any post that I've started on this seems to die after only a few responses.

There is a class action suit against Whitman but I beleive that this is a criminal matter. Not only were the people of my city victimized on 9/11, they were then victimized by the Shrub and his minions. This is Criminal!

[nam78_two]

10. well they ain't getting it with this lot around :-/

I totally agree with you...
Everyone involved in the 9/11 fuck-up, associated with this admin, has been promoted (David Frasca),
given medals of greedom (George Tenet), etc. etc.
disgusting....

checks and balances my foot...
accountability my ass....

[MissWaverly]

14. New Yorkers should have a protest

they should march and protest at Ground Zero with signs that say our GOP leaders lied
to us after 9-11, quit stalling & start helping those who were exposed. They deserve to be shown
the gate. It's like Animal House has taken control of our government.
There should be no reelection for any of these slimebuckets.

[nam78_two]

15. you know whats weird?

I once met this girl from New York and I was talking to her about this stuff and I said "Yeah there seems to be lot of stuff amuck with the whole 9/11 thing" and she says in the mpst casual way "Yeah everyone in NY knows that admin was almost criminally incompetent etc. etc." and she touches on LIHOP in the most casual way.

And...the way she said it just stunned me...It was like many people know but like its not a big deal -ya know-part of life/all politicos are scum bags anyway type of thing...
It blew me away...

Like its not something outrageous, like its not something anything should be done about.

I hope that too many people don't have such a blase attitude about something of this magnitude :wow:

Bizarre.....
Yup people in NY need to start taking to the streets....

[MissWaverly]

16. That is why the Paula Jones case happened

There was a president and he was being prosecuted for something related to s*x and what could
be worse than that, it was like it blindsided the American people, their intake valve shut down
and now we have President Run Amok, and they think well, he did that but he's not involved in
any wrongdoing related to s*x so it's not as bad, but it is 1 million times worse.

[nam78_two]

18. why do *they* hate Americans?

Thats the q to be asked.
With all the "why do you hate America" directed at anyone to the left of Fred Phelps, the facts seem to indicate that THEY (the Bush admin) hate America and Americans (Katrina, 9/11,Iraq=~6000 american lives lost).

But when you look at what they are doing to the environment-you really start thinking they want to kill people directly-even when there is NO profit motive in some instances.
I don't recall specific instances right now, but seriously there are often times when I get an alert from some enviro group or organic consumers or some FDA watchdog group and its really like they want to poison our food and water and air,destroy the environment etc. almost it seems out of spite....
Insane...

And even in most cases where profit is involved, how many people are you going to maim and kill for money (and thats just in America :eyes:).....

psychos....

[MissWaverly]

22. How do they sleep at night

How could anyone sleep knowing that they cheated people who have had their home destroyed
or lost someone in the hurricane. They are worse than Scrooge.

[flyarm]

21. lots have protested at WTC and no media covers it!! n/t

[MissWaverly]

24. better days are coming

I believe we are in for a major political shift come November, once this stuff starts to be investigated it will lead to an avalanche; the american people are not going to condone what
has been business as usual by this crew and THEY know it.

[flyarm]

8. the epa homeland security , fema, Sba, TSA, you name it they are

all now worthless under this administration and the republican congress...what i want to know is when are the American people going to grow the hell up and hold these people accountable??

fly

[MissWaverly]

25. I think now people are beginning to realize the truth

the trouble is that Bush appeals to people's emotions and we were so hurt after 9-11 that the
American people wanted to believe that they had a strong leader who cared about them and would
lead us to safety. That's not what they had, they saw something that wasn't there. Bush
is like the Brand X in the detergent commercials. He is not up to the job and has never been
with his finger on the pulse of the nation, trying to learn as much as possible about what is
going on to make informed decisions. How many questions did he ask about Katrinia, nothing,
none, zip; just got up and went on vacation. That sums it up right there.

[oxbow]

6. This is the wedge that we can use to break open the 9-11 story

All of the lies, all of the mismanagement and incompetency, this is the unarguable crime that we can point to and demand of them to investigate the rest of it. Just my .02.

[TahitiNut]

7. See ...

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/TahitiNut/315

[Imagevision]

12. Why isn't anyone taking any heat from this??

[indepat]

17. When one's entire agendas are humongous lies, tons of lies necessarily

spring forward to perpetuate the monstrous charades.

[intheflow]

19. k&r

Ground Zero / Any Gulf Coast Area Hit With A Hurricane Since They Started Oil & Gas Exploration In The Gulf Of Mexico

Nothing to see here, Folk, move along.

:grr:

[seemslikeadream]

26. The blame belongs to W.R. Grace and Dick Cheney

Grace has known about the dangers of asbestos since the 1970's

NOTE THE DATE


http://www.immuneweb.org/911/articles/moeller.html




WTC: Danger of Asbestos Fallout
by Erik Moeller
WTC: Danger of Asbestos Fallout
Analysis by Erik Moeller
10:21pm Wed Sep 12 '01 (Modified on 3:02pm Sun Sep 16 '01)
Independent Media Center
[e-mail]


After the WTC has been blown to pieces, questions about short- and long-term health effects of the explosion must be asked. Health effects of asbestos can include asbestosis, lung cancer and other diseases, depending on the concentration. How much asbestos was in the WTC? Which health effects will it cause, now that it is all over New York City?
The asbestos fiber was a common protection against fire and heat in many products, especially building components, until its heavily toxic effects became known. The American Lung Association warns that "if asbestos should become airborne and is inhaled, it can remain in the lungs for a long period of time, producing the risk for severe health problems several years later". The incubation time can last up to 30 years. Health effects can include asbestosis, lung cancer and other diseases, depending on the concentration. How much asbestos was in the WTC? Which health effects will it cause, now that it is all over New York City?

Current images from New York suggest extremely heavy and wide-spread fallout from the destroyed buildings. The question of whether asbestos was used in the building, and how much, therefore seems to be of high significance. The WTC was built from 1966-1971. The fact that asbestos is carcinogenic received wide-spread publicity in the seventies, and asbestos was still used in schools well into the seventies (see American Spectator article below). So it seemed reasonable to me to assume that asbestos was still used, and here's what I found through a Google search (I checked the first 6 pages, if anyone wants to continue):


http://www.barringer.com/html/body_5_93.html

"Wood, who helped with the investigation, says that he was not allowed onto the blast site because loose debris and asbestos made it hazardous."
http://www.egilman.com/new_jone_day/gracewtc.htm
"WR Grace Asbestos containing insulation was used at the World Trade Center (WTC). James Cintani stated that Grace Vermiculite did not contain asbestos. Unfortunately this was not true this material was 2-5 percent asbestos. 100,000 80 pound bags of this vermiculite was used in the WTC. In addition 9,150 pounds of MonoKote 3 was used at the WTC. Monokote 3 was about 20 percent asbestos. Therefore in total about 201,183 pounds of pure asbestos fiber from Grace was used in the WTC."

Unfortunately, Grace was not the only supplier:

http://www.lkaz.demon.co.uk/ban23.htm
British Asbestos Newsletter
Issue 23 : Spring 1996
"In December T&N, formerly the largest asbestos company in Britain, reached a favorable settlement with the Port Authority (PA) of New York and New Jersey, the body responsible for JFK, La Guardia and Newark airports and the World Trade Center. The PA had brought a $600m lawsuit against 37 defendants, including T&N, for asbestos contamination of municipal buildings."

http://panynj.pubcomm.com/...
Contract WTC-115.310 - The World Trade Center Removal and Disposal of Vinyl Asbestos Floor Tiles and Other Incidental Asbestos-Containing Building Materials Via Work Order Estimate Range: $1,000,000 annually Bids due Tuesday, October 17, 2000 .

http://www.erisk.com/news/weekly/news_weekly2001-05-11_01.asp
May 5 - 11, 2001
"Chalk up one victory for insurers in the escalating asbestos-claims mOlOe: the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey has lost a 10-year-old court battle to get its insurers to pay more than $600 million for removing asbestos from its properties, including the World Trade Center and New York's airports. The judge ruled that asbestos abatement costs by themselves do not constitute 'physical loss or damage' under the Port Authority's all-risk policies. The agency is considering an appeal."

http://www.fumento.com/asbest.html

Copyright 1989 by The American Spectator
"Coming soon to a school or office near you: a life-saving innovation that could kill you, designed to correct a problem that doesn't exist, by removing materials that aren't dangerous until somebody tries to remove them. And guess who's going to pay for it." ... "For example, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is expecting to pay about $1 billion for the abatement of just the World Trade Center and LaGuardia Airport. (New York City law requires abatement if renovation work is being done, as it is at these buildings.) ..."

Based on this information, it can be said with reasonable certainty that several tons of asbestos were in the World Trade Center. With the dust of the WTC now clouding the city, contamination is very likely, but measurings of the dust should be taken before jumping to any conclusions. After my search, some news media started to mention the asbestos issue, mostly this ABCNews article which states that


The Trade Center reportedly decided more than 10 years ago to treat the health risk by encapsulating the asbestos to prevent the particles from being inhaled.
To my knowledge, "encapsulating" means that the asbestos fibers are simply painted over, or that asbestos-covered shafts are sealed, to avoid direct human contact and air contamination. With both WTC towers destroyed, this "encapsulation" is of no relevance. What matters is the degree of asbestos-contamination which is now in New York City. As school is supposed to begin again tomorrow, this problem should be addressed as soon as possible. Residents of NYC should stay in their homes, keep their windows closed and shut down the air conditioning (the filters won't work on the fiber).

Because of the lawsuits mentioned in the above articles, information on asbestos use in the WTC will also be hard to find (consider the potential damages involved as a good motivation for a cover-up). It is also likely that NY authorities will not publish asbestos air measurings in order to avoid wide-spread panic and possibly accountability (since Port Authorities have delayed a clean-up for years). The health problems this fallout will bring will remain unknown for a long time.

Appendix: Damage Estimations

We can make some very shaky assumptions about the amount of asbestos exposure New Yorkers will suffer, and the consequences it will have. WB Grace et al. provided at least about 200,000 pounds of asbestos (~100 tons) for use in the WTC. Most of it can be assumed to be still in the rubble pile -- let's say 1% (1 ton or 1E6 grams) is uniformly spread over the area of New York City of 800 square kilometres (8E8 m^2). (We can definitely say that this is not the case but that the concentration is much higher in certain areas.) Let's say it is mixed in the air up to a height of ca. 10 m, so you get 8E9 m^3 and a concentration of 100 ug/m^3 (1 ug = 1E-6 g, 1 ng = 1E-9 g).

In http://www.fumento.com/asbest.html one finds "3,5 ng/m^3 = 0,0001 fibers per cubic centimenter" (=fibers/cc) which results in 1 fiber/cc = 30 ug/m^3.

The above calculation therefore results in about 3 fibers/cc.

The official US Air Force regulations recommend:


A time-weighted-average permissible exposure limit (PEL) of 0.1 fibers/cubic centimeter (f/cc) for all asbestos work in all industries;
An asbestos excursion limit above which no employee should be exposed equivalent to an airborne concentration of asbestos in excess of 1.0 fiber per cubic centimeter of air (1 f/cc) as averaged over a sampling period of thirty (30) minutes
(Excursion limit = limit for the length of an excursion = ~30 minutes.) Now we are 30 times above industry level and 3 times above worst case for 30 minutes.

It could be better if (aside from basic assumptions):


fibers are clumped together with other dust particles, so that particle size is much larger which supports removal of fibers from lungs in a natural way (coughing them up again etc.).
It could be worse if:
asbestos fibers are incorporated (eaten, drunk) -- they could separate from the dust and spread freely
dust is much higher concentrated in lower Manhattan (and nearby Brooklyn/Queens area - was it the direction of the downwind?) than assumed by the numbers above.
most is on ground, not in the air. But if dust on the ground is whirled up the concentration around a person or house could be much higher than the 3 fibers/cc assumed above.
dust settles on windows, staircases, clothings and cars. Gets destributed to the living room as permanent exposure.
what about the amount of asbestos used in the WTC not from WB Grace? The total amount of asbestos in the WTC could be much higher.
To sum it up I think one should be very careful with the dust, especially regarding children and people below 30. 30 years is the typical incubation time.


Note: One of the reader comments on this article states: "I was 1000 feet from ground zero at the time of the collapse. My bldg was engulfed by the cloud of dust. Even on the 14th floor the air was irritating to the throat and lungs. I walked home at about noon via the Brooklyn Bridge, like tens of thousands of others. I live in the Windsor Terrace section of Brooklyn, exactly downwind from ground zero, a distance of about 4 or 5 miles. The air has continually had the smell of a burning building, to varying degrees. But today (Sunday, 9/16/01) it has the distinct smell of burning plastic."


http://spewingforth.blogspot.com/2005/02/wr-grace-execs-indicted-for-asbestos.html


W.R. Grace Execs Indicted For Asbestos Coverup

George Bush's Frivolous Asbestos Claims?

In yet another case of deadly corporate coverups, the W.R. Grace & Co. and seven of its current or former executives and department heads were indicted yesterday in federal court in Missoula, Montana.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency,
W.R. Grace and its executives, as far back as the 1970’s, attempted to hide the fact that toxic asbestos was present in vermiculite products at the company’s Libby, Montana plant. The grand jury charged the defendants with conspiring to conceal information about the hazardous nature of the company’s asbestos contaminated vermiculite products, obstructing the government’s clean-up efforts, and wire fraud. To date, according to the indictment, approximately 1,200 residents of Libby have been identified as suffering from some kind of asbestos-related abnormality.



http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1981988&mesg_id=1982070

LeftHander (1000+ posts) Fri Aug-06-04 01:50 PM
Response to Original message
18. Asbestos keeps cropping up....
Ahhhhh asbestos....I am keenly interested in asbestos....

1999 Halliburton CEO - Cheney aquires Dresser (Harbison-Walker)

Dresser is a longtime Bush family company.

These companies were steeped in the Asbestos quagmire. At the edge of ruin. 200,000 asbestos claims that could reach 2-3 million a piece.

In June of 2002 Halliburton had lost a large claim and sent the stock tumbling to a dangerous low.

I believe Cheney took on Dresser as a favor to GHWBush and the Bush family. His task was to prevent Asbestos claims from destroying Dresser and Harbison-Walker. Using his defence contacts he was able to secure BILLIONS of U.S. dollars in a war in Iraq to bolster HAL stock and give time for Buddies like Orin Hatch to push a bad asbestos liability bill through congress. Which required a GOP controlled senate. Wellstone dies in a crash. As a asbestos victim advocate he would NEVER of stood and allowed the Asbestos bill introduced by Hatch to live as long as it did. They spent millions on ads trying to convince limiting asbestos liability was good for victims.

The bill now stalled or dead has disappeared from the public as the war in Iraq and the election dominates the media.

The asbestos libility and estimated 750,000 claims is the single most expensive liability claim tracked to a single cause in U.S. history. Tort reform and Judicial appointments all now appear to guided by the outcome of this bill. Interestingly enough the public is now being hit with another campaign to allow Bush judicial appointments to go ahead.

For Bush to not gain the Presidency in November will certainly mean that any asbestos friendly legislation will be difficult if not impossible to pass. Funds pooling into Halliburton as a result of Cheney's open ended no-bid contracts will surely end and put Halliburton at risk for complete dissolution as law suits send the company spiraling into financial oblivion.

With the above threads it really looks like there has been a huge effort on the part of many big corporate type GOPers to make sure asbestos does not cause major economic strife for a large portion of U.S. industry. Much of which is the backbone of the U.S. military industrial complex.

It sickens me the length people will go to protect money and allow people to suffer generation after generation.


THE ORIGINAL WMD CHENEY'S ASBESTOS IS EVERYWHERE

[seemslikeadream]

27. W.R. Grace

Know your BFEE: Cheney & Halliburton Sold Iran Nuke Technology
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=928662&mesg_id=931211


W. R. Grace
http://demopedia.democraticunderground.com/index.php/W.R._Grace


http://journals.democraticunderground.com/seemslikeadream/99

http://sync.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=125&topic_id=97281&mesg_id=97933

http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum/duboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=32712&forum=DCForumID35
http://elitewatch.911review.org/halliburton.html