Metadish, Fresh from NYC

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The Daily News needs to grow a pair of balls. They comment on the growing 9/11 health epidemic with the line “Officials failed to act on Ground Zero perils”.

Which officials? Where is the fucking outrage at the lies and manipulation?

“When the EPA made a September 18 announcement that the air was ’safe’ to breathe, it did not have sufficient data and analyses to make such a blanket statement,” the report says. “Furthermore, the White House Council on Environmental Quality influenced . . . the information that EPA communicated to the public through its early press releases when it convinced EPA to add reassuring statements and delete cautionary ones.”

On the morning of Sept. 12, according to the report, the office of then-EPA Administrator Christie Whitman issued a memo: “All statements to the media should be cleared through the NSC (National Security Council in the White House) before they are released.” The 165-page report compares excerpts from EPA draft statements to the final versions, including these:

The draft statement contained a warning from EPA scientists that homes and businesses near ground zero should be cleaned by professionals. Instead, the public was told to follow instructions from New York City officials.

Another draft statement was deleted; it raised concerns about “sensitive populations” such as asthma patients, the elderly and people with underlying respiratory diseases.

These people, the sick, these men and women are the same ones who for five years we have called heroes. The first responders. The police, fire, medical and consctruction workers who heeded the call. The ones who worked night and day at Ground Zero, at first trying to rescue someone. Anyone. Then just trying to regain some sense of normalcy. Now they have been abandoned. They have been pushed aside and forgotten. Is it that hard to say who is responsible? Do we not owe it to them?

It’s not like these reports came from some random, low-level official clouded in mystery like the News’ lede would have you believe. They came straight from the top and the Daily News is running it like, well somebody told us it was ok, we just don’t know who y’all. The News piece doesn’t make one mention of the EPA or the NSC. Not one.

The making of a health disaster [Daily News]
EPA Misled Public on 9/11 Pollution [Newsday]

Photo by ristonsunset

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