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OWENS DEMANDS
EPA TO TEST FOR 9/11 CONTAMINATION IN BROOKLYN
Washington,
DC - Congressman Major R. Owens today demanded that the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) conduct testing in Brooklyn for toxic contamination
attributable to the 9/11 bombing of the World Trade Center. Owens pointed to a
newly released report by EPA experts that strongly advised testing for building
contaminants in Brooklyn as well as patterns of adverse health effects among its
residents.
“It is outrageous for the EPA to continue to ignore thousands of
Brooklynites who remain affected by dangerous toxins carried in the enormous
dust cloud that formed after the World Trade Center bombing,” Owens
stressed. “What signal does this send to women, children and men living in
Brooklyn: that the government can ignore the 9/11 contamination in their homes
and worksites because they have the ‘wrong’ zip code?” Owens asked.
The EPA expert panel also urged testing for mercury, small fiber asbestos and
other previously ignored toxins that emanated from Ground Zero.
“When it comes to 9/11 testing and clean-up, EPA’s track record of
avoidance, sloppy work and duplicity has real-life consequences for the health
and well-being of countless New Yorker. It is high time EPA stops politicizing
science and listens to its Expert Advisory Committee. The egregious gaps in
testing –both geographic and substantive – will no longer be tolerated,”
Owens stated.
As senior Democrat on the
Subcommittee for
Workforce Protections, Owens is recognized as a leader in the fight to
promote health care and prevent illness and injury for hard working Americans
and their families.
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