Environmental Protection Agency whistleblower who has long argued that her agency failed to issue proper warnings about air quality at the World Trade Center disaster site, has leveled new accusations against the agency.
RAW STORY reported this past August, Cate Jenkins, an EPA biochemist, sent a letter to the New York congressional delegation, alleging that the inconsistent official reports about inhalant alkalinity were part of an intentional cover up by government scientists and officials.
Jenkins' latest sixty-page document, addressed to the acting Inspector General of the EPA, is in large part a compilation of her previous allegations, but also claims to offer new evidence that criminal fraud is to blame.
IIn the latest report, Jenkins contends that by failing to report that some of the particulates in the air constituted a severe health hazard--and by suppressing the results of tests for the presence of other toxic chemicals--the EPA misled the public about the dire health consequences of remaining near ground zero or participating in the clean-up effort in the days following the attack.
Tens of thousands of cases of lung disease have reportedly resulted from exposure to the smoke and pulverized debris that hovered in the vicinity of the disaster site for months after the towers collapsed.
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The Toxic Air of 9/11, and the Toxic Decisions of George Bush: The Death Toll Did Not End on Sept. 11, 2001. We Are Still Fighting for Health Care for the Heroes of Ground Zero.
By Lillian Roberts, Executive Director, District Council 37, AFSCME
Public Employee Press
October 2006
http://www.dc37.net/news/PEP/10_2006/editorial10_2006.html
We will never forget our members who were killed amid the devastation of September 11, 2001. In their memory, we mounted a plaque beside the entrance to DC 37 headquarters — one block from Ground Zero.
Paramedic Carlos Lillo of Local 2507 and Paramedic Lieutenant Ricardo Quinn of Local 3621 died as they had lived, facing danger to save lives. The Rev. Mychal Judge, a Fire Dept. Chaplain and Local 299 member, perished as he gave last rites to a fatally injured Firefighter. Off-Track Betting Clerk Chet Louie of Local 2021 had a second job in the World Trade Center.
In September we commemorated the fifth anniversary of their deaths by placing a wreath beside the plaque (see photo) and by redoubling our efforts to win funds for health monitoring and treatment for the survivors.
Since the towers fell, we have been taking the 100-year-old advice of the famed labor organizer Mother Jones: "Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living." DC 37 Safety and Health Director Lee Clarke and I have been leading that fight ever since, for the death toll did not end on Sept. 11, 2001. The threat of serious health hazards was quickly apparent in the stinking "toxic soup" the rescuers breathed.
Members have been dying from their exposures — unsung heroes who searched the smoldering pile of twisted metal in vain for signs of life and then for remains before they began the gruesome cleanup. Ambulance crews and nurses, laborers and truckers, engineers, psychologists and school food workers inhaled the smoky air, thick with particles of glass, cement and asbestos — first with no masks at all and later with the inadequate ones they were given.
The price of doing good was a premature death last year for Emergency Medical Technicians Felix Hernandez and Tim Keller and just a few months ago for Paramedic Deborah Reeve — their lungs destroyed by the air they breathed.
Toxic air, toxic lies from Washington
Right after 9/11, Federal Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Christine Todd Whitman assured us that the air was safe, but we learned later that the Bush White House had pressed to silence the alarms so Wall Street could reopen sooner. EPA staff had reported the hazards to the Giuliani administration, which also let commercial pressure beat out safety concerns.
In 2002, Bush vetoed funds to track the health of rescue and cleanup workers. The pattern continued in September as his Republican Senate majority shot down Sen. Hillary Clinton’s latest plan to provide $1.9 billion for medical monitoring and lifetime treatment for the heroes.
After five years, the federal government still has no long-term plan to care for those whose lungs are falling victim to what they breathed at the disaster site. A new study by Mt. Sinai Hospital, which came about through the efforts of DC 37, has found that nearly 70 percent of the rescue and recovery workers have lung problems.
But despite the toxic coverups, the truth is coming out and the movement to address the health crisis is growing. I am proud that a Sept. 8 congressional hearing on the issue was held at DC 37 — to the best of our knowledge, the only congressional hearing held at a union (see page 4). U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays, who chaired the session as the head of the Subcommittee on National Security, pointed out that "DC 37 was the first to sound the alarm."
The testimony by victims of "9/11 disease" left many at the hearing in tears as it provided ammunition and ideas for members of Congress, such as Sens. Clinton and Schumer and Reps. Carolyn Maloney and Vito Fossella, who have been pressing for new legislation.
We will never give up
Our continuing hard work on this issue has led to progress. Gov. George Pataki recently signed laws improving Workers’ Compensation provisions, the city has issued overdue guidelines for doctors treating 9/11-related illnesses, and the mayor has promised to fund a Bellevue clinic for people exposed to WTC dust.
Part of the problem we face in providing expensive health care for many of the 40,000 exposed workers and residents is that instead of continuing to pursue the perpetrators of 9/11, President Bush invaded a country that had nothing to do with 9/11 at a disgraceful cost in lives and funds. Spending $300 billion in Iraq leaves little for medical coverage, education aid, homeland security or health care for the brave workers who came running to Ground Zero when their nation needed them. This union will keep up the fight on their behalf until we achieve justice for the true heroes of 9/11. The Toxic Air of 9/11, and the Toxic Decisions of George Bush: The Death Toll Did Not End on Sept. 11, 2001. We Are Still Fighting for Health Care for the Heroes of Ground Zero.
By Lillian Roberts, Executive Director, District Council 37, AFSCME
Public Employee Press
October 2006
http://www.dc37.net/news/PEP/10_2006/editorial10_2006.html
We will never forget our members who were killed amid the devastation of September 11, 2001. In their memory, we mounted a plaque beside the entrance to DC 37 headquarters — one block from Ground Zero.
Paramedic Carlos Lillo of Local 2507 and Paramedic Lieutenant Ricardo Quinn of Local 3621 died as they had lived, facing danger to save lives. The Rev. Mychal Judge, a Fire Dept. Chaplain and Local 299 member, perished as he gave last rites to a fatally injured Firefighter. Off-Track Betting Clerk Chet Louie of Local 2021 had a second job in the World Trade Center.
In September we commemorated the fifth anniversary of their deaths by placing a wreath beside the plaque (see photo) and by redoubling our efforts to win funds for health monitoring and treatment for the survivors.
Since the towers fell, we have been taking the 100-year-old advice of the famed labor organizer Mother Jones: "Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living." DC 37 Safety and Health Director Lee Clarke and I have been leading that fight ever since, for the death toll did not end on Sept. 11, 2001. The threat of serious health hazards was quickly apparent in the stinking "toxic soup" the rescuers breathed.
Members have been dying from their exposures — unsung heroes who searched the smoldering pile of twisted metal in vain for signs of life and then for remains before they began the gruesome cleanup. Ambulance crews and nurses, laborers and truckers, engineers, psychologists and school food workers inhaled the smoky air, thick with particles of glass, cement and asbestos — first with no masks at all and later with the inadequate ones they were given.
The price of doing good was a premature death last year for Emergency Medical Technicians Felix Hernandez and Tim Keller and just a few months ago for Paramedic Deborah Reeve — their lungs destroyed by the air they breathed.
Toxic air, toxic lies from Washington
Right after 9/11, Federal Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Christine Todd Whitman assured us that the air was safe, but we learned later that the Bush White House had pressed to silence the alarms so Wall Street could reopen sooner. EPA staff had reported the hazards to the Giuliani administration, which also let commercial pressure beat out safety concerns.
In 2002, Bush vetoed funds to track the health of rescue and cleanup workers. The pattern continued in September as his Republican Senate majority shot down Sen. Hillary Clinton’s latest plan to provide $1.9 billion for medical monitoring and lifetime treatment for the heroes.
After five years, the federal government still has no long-term plan to care for those whose lungs are falling victim to what they breathed at the disaster site. A new study by Mt. Sinai Hospital, which came about through the efforts of DC 37, has found that nearly 70 percent of the rescue and recovery workers have lung problems.
But despite the toxic coverups, the truth is coming out and the movement to address the health crisis is growing. I am proud that a Sept. 8 congressional hearing on the issue was held at DC 37 — to the best of our knowledge, the only congressional hearing held at a union (see page 4). U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays, who chaired the session as the head of the Subcommittee on National Security, pointed out that "DC 37 was the first to sound the alarm."
The testimony by victims of "9/11 disease" left many at the hearing in tears as it provided ammunition and ideas for members of Congress, such as Sens. Clinton and Schumer and Reps. Carolyn Maloney and Vito Fossella, who have been pressing for new legislation.
We will never give up
Our continuing hard work on this issue has led to progress. Gov. George Pataki recently signed laws improving Workers’ Compensation provisions, the city has issued overdue guidelines for doctors treating 9/11-related illnesses, and the mayor has promised to fund a Bellevue clinic for people exposed to WTC dust.
Part of the problem we face in providing expensive health care for many of the 40,000 exposed workers and residents is that instead of continuing to pursue the perpetrators of 9/11, President Bush invaded a country that had nothing to do with 9/11 at a disgraceful cost in lives and funds. Spending $300 billion in Iraq leaves little for medical coverage, education aid, homeland security or health care for the brave workers who came running to Ground Zero when their nation needed them. This union will keep up the fight on their behalf until we achieve justice for the true heroes of 9/11.
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