Yahoo! News - EPA Watchdog Rips White House on NYC Air: "The White House 'convinced EPA to add reassuring statements and delete cautionary ones' by having the National Security Council control EPA communications in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, according to a report issued late Thursday by EPA Inspector General Nikki L. Tinsley.
'When EPA made a Sept. 18 announcement that the air was 'safe' to breathe, the agency did not have sufficient data and analyses to make the statement,' the report says, adding that the EPA had yet to adequately monitor air quality for contaminants such as PCBs, soot and dioxin.
In all, the EPA issued five press releases within 10 days of the attacks and four more by the end of 2001 reassuring the public about air quality. But it wasn't until June 2002 that the EPA determined that air quality had returned to pre-Sept. 11 levels — well after respiratory ailments and other problems began to surface in hundreds of workers cleaning dusty offices and apartments. "

What is the distinction here between what the White House and EPA did, and criminal conduct? I don't get it. They deliberately mislead millions of people about their health. And they did that in the name of "security"?

More people die as a result of polluted air and water every year than died in the 9-11 terrrorist attacks. So if the administration is really concerned with making the US population safer, they would make the air and water safer. But their actions consistently show they would prefer to cut costs for polluters than cut the death rate from polluted air and water.

When will the administration begin to understand that security includes health as well as safety?

And when will they be held to account for their deliberate endangerment of the US people?
- posted by geoff @ #