Anyone who listened to a Govt. official and believed "this" was safe, should have been nominated for a Darwin Award!
Posted on 02/02/2006 6:34:19 PM PST by NormsRevenge
NEW YORK - A federal judge blasted former Environmental Protection Agency chief Christine Todd Whitman on Thursday for reassuring New Yorkers soon after the Sept. 11 attacks that it was safe to return to their homes and offices while toxic dust was polluting the neighborhood.
U.S. District Judge Deborah A. Batts refused to grant Whitman immunity against a class-action lawsuit brought in 2004 by residents, students and workers in lower Manhattan and Brooklyn who said they were exposed to hazardous materials from the destruction of the World Trade Center.
"No reasonable person would have thought that telling thousands of people that it was safe to return to lower Manhattan, while knowing that such return could pose long-term health risks and other dire consequences, was conduct sanctioned by our laws," the judge said.
She called Whitman's actions "conscience-shocking," saying the EPA chief knew that the collapse of the twin towers released tons of hazardous materials into the air.
Whitman had no comment, according to a spokeswoman. A Justice Department spokesman said the government had no comment. An EPA spokeswoman said the agency was reviewing the lengthy opinion.
The judge let the lawsuit proceed against the EPA and Whitman, permitting the plaintiffs to try to prove that the agency and its administrator endangered their health.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages and reimbursement for cleanup costs and asks the court to order that a medical monitoring fund be set up to track the health of those exposed to trade center dust.
In her ruling, Batts noted that the EPA and Whitman said repeatedly — beginning just two days after the attack — that the air appeared safe to breathe. The EPA's internal watchdog later found that the agency, at the urging of White House officials, gave misleading assurances.
Quoting a ruling in an earlier case, the judge said a public official cannot be held personally liable for putting the public in harm's way unless the conduct was so egregious as "to shock the contemporary conscience." Given her role in protecting the health and environment for Americans, Whitman's reassurances after Sept. 11 were "without question conscience-shocking," Batts said.
Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., said in a statement that New Yorkers are still depending on the federal government to describe any ongoing risk from contaminants.
"I continue to believe that the White House owes New Yorkers an explanation," she said.
U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler (news, bio, voting record), a Democrat whose district includes the trade center site, said the many people who worked at the site and developed respiratory diseases deserve answers.
"It is my assumption that thousands of people — workers and residents — are being slowly poisoned today because these workplaces and residences were never properly cleaned up," Nadler said in a telephone interview.
When Hillary first made this charge Gulianni responded. He said the City, the workers' unions, the EPA, and several other agencies were all monitoring the site. Their data agreed. According to Rudi, the EPA slanted nothing. I do remember some workers eschewing respirators as too cumbersome as they fought to look for survivors.
Do you want to give Whitman a pass on this? Lying is OK?
Hell no! But tell me truthfully, you see that picture and I tell you "Its safe! Its breathable" Are you going to believe me? Whitman is a liberal idiot and hate Bush. ?Here plan is to blame this all on Bush and it'll be pseudo scandal #78!
Whitman quit her post soon after 9/11 didn't she? Maybe she was forced to resign, maybe she just quit in disgust over being "urged" by White House officials.
What exactly were tens of thousands of New Yorkers supposed to do immediately after the towers fell? Should Manhattan have been evacuated? Or should it have been business as usual.
It's always cheaper to go about business as usual. The EPA was the rubber stamp allowing that to happen. It's a disgrace and just another total failure of the federal government.
My tax money at work for me once again.
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