happy new year 2012 - site still in rebuild state
9/11 & Environmental Health
Posted on September 9, 2011
NY Environmental Law and Justice Project is honored to have been featured on Democracy Now! this morning. NYELJP Executive Director Joel Kupferman appeared on the show alongside Anthony DePalma to discuss the often-forgotten narrative of rescue workers and residents of lower Manhattan who were exposed to contaminated air at Ground Zero—many of whom continue to suffer life-threatening health consequences. Immediately following the attack on 9/11 Kupferman was a driving force in the fight to uncover documents that revealed that federal officials in Washington and New York downplayed concerns about health risks, and misrepresented or concealed information that might have protected thousands of people from Manhattan's contaminated air.
As we are thinking about the tragedy of 9/11 on the days leading up to its 10th anniversary, we would like to take time to commend the courageous individuals who worked to expose important information about the dangerous chemicals that the attacks unleashed on the city. The journalistic work of Democracy Now!'s Juan Gonzalez has been especially crucial to uncovering the 9/11 health issues. Gonzalez was the first reporter in New York to stand up for transparency and write that the air near Ground Zero was not safe, contrary to federal and NYC officials' claims that it was. We agree with Gonzalez's statement, quoted in a 2007 Village Voice article: "My only concern is that, if more journalists, not just at the [Daily]News but in the rest of the New York media, had had the courage to follow the story back then, maybe there wouldn't be as many people getting sick or dying now" (Village Voice 5/17/07).
Additionally, New York owes gratitude to all the brave individuals who facilitated the exposure of this important environmental health issue, especially police officer/union delegate Tom Barnett, who allowed Kupferman and his partner Columbia Fiero access to the WTC site to collect the dust samples that invoked further investigation into the toxic contamination issue; UFA members Phil McCardle and Rudy Sanfillipo. We also extend thanks to the numerous "whistle-blowers" that contacted the project with essential information; EPA Staff Robert Martin, Hugh Kaufmann, George Pavlou, and Cate Jenkins; politicians who rose above political pressure to make the government accountable, namely Congressman Jerry Nadler, then-Senator David Paterson, late Council Member Stanley Michels; the medical community, especially Dr. Stephen Levin of Mount Sinai, Dr. David Carpenter, Dr. Steven Markowitz, and industrial hygienists Monona Rossol and Uday Singh, and Toxicologist/Epidemiologist Dr. Kathleen Burns; and the countless number of community and labor activists who helped to advance environmental justice in New York City.
NYELJP utilizes public interest law to advocate for community and worker right to know, public health, and a sustainable environment. In this light, on the 10th anniversary of 9/11, we would like to share documents from the aftermath of 9/11 and the lawsuit filed against ex-EPA Head Christine Todd Whitman. Find these documents listed below.
And please watch today's segment on Democracy Now! as a reminder that this fight is not over. Keep this dialogue alive as New Yorkers continue to suffer from the health consequences of this tragic day.
Freedom of Information Request
Court Decision
EPA Letter to DOH Associate Commissioner McKinney-His letter to "File"
OSHA Letter, Dust contains asbestos
Sen. David Paterson Press Conference
As we are thinking about the tragedy of 9/11 on the days leading up to its 10th anniversary, we would like to take time to commend the courageous individuals who worked to expose important information about the dangerous chemicals that the attacks unleashed on the city. The journalistic work of Democracy Now!'s Juan Gonzalez has been especially crucial to uncovering the 9/11 health issues. Gonzalez was the first reporter in New York to stand up for transparency and write that the air near Ground Zero was not safe, contrary to federal and NYC officials' claims that it was. We agree with Gonzalez's statement, quoted in a 2007 Village Voice article: "My only concern is that, if more journalists, not just at the [Daily]News but in the rest of the New York media, had had the courage to follow the story back then, maybe there wouldn't be as many people getting sick or dying now" (Village Voice 5/17/07).
Additionally, New York owes gratitude to all the brave individuals who facilitated the exposure of this important environmental health issue, especially police officer/union delegate Tom Barnett, who allowed Kupferman and his partner Columbia Fiero access to the WTC site to collect the dust samples that invoked further investigation into the toxic contamination issue; UFA members Phil McCardle and Rudy Sanfillipo. We also extend thanks to the numerous "whistle-blowers" that contacted the project with essential information; EPA Staff Robert Martin, Hugh Kaufmann, George Pavlou, and Cate Jenkins; politicians who rose above political pressure to make the government accountable, namely Congressman Jerry Nadler, then-Senator David Paterson, late Council Member Stanley Michels; the medical community, especially Dr. Stephen Levin of Mount Sinai, Dr. David Carpenter, Dr. Steven Markowitz, and industrial hygienists Monona Rossol and Uday Singh, and Toxicologist/Epidemiologist Dr. Kathleen Burns; and the countless number of community and labor activists who helped to advance environmental justice in New York City.
NYELJP utilizes public interest law to advocate for community and worker right to know, public health, and a sustainable environment. In this light, on the 10th anniversary of 9/11, we would like to share documents from the aftermath of 9/11 and the lawsuit filed against ex-EPA Head Christine Todd Whitman. Find these documents listed below.
And please watch today's segment on Democracy Now! as a reminder that this fight is not over. Keep this dialogue alive as New Yorkers continue to suffer from the health consequences of this tragic day.
Freedom of Information Request
Court Decision
EPA Letter to DOH Associate Commissioner McKinney-His letter to "File"
OSHA Letter, Dust contains asbestos
Sen. David Paterson Press Conference
Excerpt from The Public Health Fallout from September 11: Official Deception and Long-Term Damage by NYELJP Executive Director Joel R Kupferman --"The environmental and public health nightmare that began in New York City on September 11, 2001 was unprecedented in nature, and its scope is still being discovered – mainly without the help of the Bush Administration's environmental agencies. The persistent 'WTC cough,' hundreds of new cases of asthma, the broad wind-borne dissemination of toxic elements, a by-now unmanageable spread of toxic dust initially carried out of the World Trade Center and debris-collection sites by rescue workers and since spread by former rescue vehicles like city buses and fire trucks – these are some of the reasons why, at this writing, more than 500 firefighters have sustained permanent disabilities that have forced them to retire, why 25 percent of nurses examined at a downtown hospital in March 2002 had serious respiratory disorders, and why these cases are the tip of a very large iceberg."
