EPA puts residential testing data on Web site
The Associated Press, October 22, 2002

NEW YORK (AP) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Tuesday that it has begun putting data from its cleaning and testing of apartments near the World Trade Center site on the Web.  Out of the initial batch of apartments where residents requested testing for asbestos only, 108 passed the test and three did not. The EPA is discussing appropriate cleanup procedures with the residents of the three apartments that did not pass, said Mary Mears, a spokeswoman for the agency.

Another 138 apartments were cleaned by the EPA and then tested, and all of those passed, Mears said. Six apartments had results that could not be read by the laboratory. Test results for individual units are provided only to residents of the units.

U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, a Democrat whose district includes the lower Manhattan trade center site, complained that the EPA testing shows results only for asbestos, not for other contaminants, and is being conducted only in a limited area. "These results are incomplete, unsubstantiated and illusionary," Nadler said. "The EPA has demonstrated in the past that they would like nothing better than to declare the area safe so they can pack up their bags and leave the trade center case behind them."

Cancer-causing asbestos and other toxins were sprayed around lower Manhattan and beyond when the trade center was destroyed on Sept. 11, 2001. Residents of Manhattan south of Canal Street have until Dec. 28 to request cleaning and testing or testing only from the EPA.
____

On the Net: EPA: http://www.epa.gov/wtc 

FAIR USE NOTICE
This article contains copyrighted material, the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material available in my efforts to advance understanding of democracy, economic, environmental, human rights, political, scientific, and social justice issues, among others. I believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material in this article is distributed without profit for research and educational purposes.