Toxic Legacy

CBC just had a documentary called Toxic Legacy about the after effects of 9/11 on the people who worked at Ground Zero immediately after the attacks. Most upsetting was the callous way that these much-praised people have been treated by their own government's agencies -- lied to and denied benefits.

RawStory reported August 25, 2006 that an EPA scientist, Dr. Cate Jenkins, had written a letter "to Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and other members of the New York congressional delegation" which claimed that the EPA bowed to political pressure regarding the existence of "dangerous toxins".

Jenkins:

"These falsifications directly contributed not only to emergency personnel and citizens not taking adequate precautions to prevent exposures, but also prevented the subsequent correct diagnosis of the causative agents responsible for the pulmonary symptoms. Thus, appropriate treatment was prevented or misdirected, and loss of life and permanent disability undoubtedly resulted."