In the aftermath of September 11, people were assured that the air quality in New York City was safe. Recent documents obtained by ProPublica, however, show that federal officials downplayed concerns about ground zero health risks, misrepresenting or concealing information that ultimately could have protected thousands of people from the contaminated air.
Anthony DePalma, author of "City of Dust: Illness, Arrogance and 9/11," investigated this issue in a report for ProPublica. He was a guest on Democracy Now! this morning to further delve into his investigation.
"The documents do not reveal how--or whether--federal officials explicitly weighed the competing goals of ensuring New Yorkers' safety and projecting an image of a city and nation unbowed," DePalma writes. "But taken as a whole, the records--which include email messages from the White House's Council on Environmental Quality to the Environmental Protection Agency and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, as well as interagency correspondence--give the most detailed account yet of how officials kept potentially disturbing data about health risks from the public."
Watch the full interview below. You can also read DePalma's article, New Docs Detail How Feds Downplayed Ground Zero Health Risks, and view the documents in question on our website.
