Clinton Proposes Air Tests in Lower Manhattan

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Clinton Proposes Air Tests in Lower Manhattan

By Virasami

STAFF WRITER

February 12, 2002

Procedures to test air quality at Ground Zero should be beefed up and a

health registry created to monitor the long-term health of workers and

residents in lower Manhattan, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said yesterday.

The proposals were released before a hearing with Clinton and Sen. ph

Lieberman (D-Conn.), who heard testimony from city and federal officials and

residents about health and air quality concerns in lower Manhattan.

After the five-hour hearing at One Bowling Green, Clinton said testing air

quality should be a " national priority. "

" I don't think that the war on terrorism can only be fought either in

Afghanistan or foreign countries, or that our only response here at home is

to beef up security, " Clinton said. " We also have to take whatever steps are

necessary to protect the environment and our health. "

" The safety of lower Manhattan is still very much in debate. While this

debate is going on our children continue to get sick, " one witness, teacher

Marilena Chrisodoulou, president of the Stuyvesant High School Parents'

Association, told the senators.

She said parents have reported higher levels of emergency room visits, a

spike in respiratory problems and an unusual rash among students since they

returned to classes Oct. 9.

While most witnesses agreed the air needs to be tested and monitored on a

regular basis, there were different views over the procedures used to

monitor air quality. And new questions were raised by independent

environmental groups about the integrity of the EPA's pronouncements on air

quality levels.

Goldstein of the Natural Resources Defense Council criticized the

city's Department of Environmental Protection for failing to take the

immediate lead on monitoring air quality after Sept. 11.

" That department did not rise to the challenge, " he said.

One of the sharper criticisms came from Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-Manhattan)

who said the EPA should not have relied on landlords to certify the air

quality of apartment buildings before allowing residents to move back in.

" The EPA says, 'Well, we gave it to the city of New York to do.' New York

says, well, 'We gave it to the landlords to do.' We don't check whether the

landlords did it; we believe their certification, " Nadler said.

Jane Kenny, EPA regional administrator, painted a more optimistic picture of

the work done to monitor air quality and stressed her staff worked with

several other agencies to educate workers and local residents.

Copyright © 2002, Newsday, Inc.