EPA Offers Final 9/11 Dust Testing Plan For Lower Manhattan

EPA Offers Final 9/11 Dust Testing Plan For Lower Manhattan

http://www.wnbc.com/health/5430697/detail.html

(Gold9472: Four years too late, but meh, whatcha gonna' do?)

POSTED: 9:00 pm EST November 29, 2005

WASHINGTON -- The government offered its final plan for testing lower Manhattan buildings for leftover dust from the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attack. Lawmakers derided the move Tuesday as too little, too late.

The Environmental Protection Agency issued its plan for testing any dust that may remain in private homes and commercial space from the collapse of the World Trade Center more than four years ago. The $7 million effort covers Manhattan south of Canal Street and west of Pike and Allen streets, testing samples for asbestos, lead and other substances that could pose health risks.

The agency hopes the testing will "provide assurances to people living and working in lower Manhattan who have remaining concerns about the presence of dust from the World Trade Center collapse," the head of the EPA's technical review panel, Timothy Oppelt, said in a statement.

New York lawmakers including Sen. Hillary Clinton and Rep. Jerrold Nadler, both Democrats, had criticized past EPA testing efforts and demanded more thorough scientific work.

They said the plan announced Tuesday fell well short of what was needed, particularly because the agency intends to end the review panel's work next month.

"The EPA's proposal today to disband the panel after the next meeting is unacceptable," Clinton said in a statement. "The panel has not even begun to meet its mandate to identify unmet public health needs."

Nadler, whose district includes ground zero, was even more caustic, calling the EPA's plan "a breathtaking slap at the residents and workers of lower Manhattan."

The review panel was created after Clinton and Nadler complained the agency prematurely assured New Yorkers that air pollution from 1.8 million tons of World Trade Center debris posed no health threat.

Nadler has called for a more expanded testing area and more extensive testing of buildings hit with blowing clouds of World Trade Center dust.

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