On Oct. 6, 2001, while the city and the Environmental Protection Agency were reassuring New Yorkers that the air at Ground Zero was safe, a top city health department official wrote a three-page memo raising critical environmental issues related to the disaster.Five years later, the cost now may be coming true from mysterious illnesses, shortened careers, lost lives, and a class action lawsuit filed by 7,000 people.
The city's Department of Environmental Protection, which conducted tests for asbestos in the days immediately after Sept. 11, showed dangerously high levels of the fibers, but did not reveal those test results to the public. The results were later disclosed by the state in response to a Freedom of Information request.
Dust samples from Ground Zero were sent to two independent labs. The results showed high levels of fiberglass and pulverized asbestos that had been exposed to extraordinary heat. (Newsday)
