EPA Misled New Yorkers on Post-9/11 Asbestos

Asbestos in Private Homes after 9/11

The allegation was part of a Senate hearing about the federal government’s response to health and environmental issues at Ground Zero. The GAO report concluded that Lower Manhattan residents were given an erroneous impression about the health and environmental risks present in their homes after the destruction of the World Trade Center, which released huge amounts of dust and possibly toxins from building materials.

Tests Done After Cleaning

The EPA reported that only a "very small" number of air samples taken in about 4,000 apartments in Lower Manhattan had an unsafe level of asbestos. However, as the GAO pointed out, the EPA neglected to say that 80 percent of the air samples were taken after the apartments had already been cleaned in a residential cleanup program conducted by the EPA.

The director of the GAO's Natural Resources and Environment Division, John B. Stephenson, put it succinctly: "That was misleading."

Many Homes May Have High Asbestos

According to the GAO, as a result of the misleading EPA report downplaying the presence of asbestos and other toxins in Lower Manhattan homes, only 295 more apartment and building owners in the area applied to make use of a new cleanup program, although approximately 20,000 residences are eligible for the program.

Further Screening and Testing for Asbestos and More

The subcommittee's hearing is the first to look into the Bush administration's response to the environmental issues surrounding the World Trade Center destruction. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, who led the hearing, noted that the GAO findings represent "a very different picture from what the White House would like us to believe." She announced that $55 million for the screening and treatment of people exposed to Ground Zero toxins is included in a Senate appropriations budget proposal for 2008 — money that would, for the first time, cover the residents of Lower Manhattan.

(Source: New York Times)

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