You can help! Sample letter to President BushSample letter to EPA Administrator Stephen L. JohnsonSample letter to your SenatorSample letter to your RepresentativeHow to contact your elected officials!
Please urge our federal government to take effective action to abate the environmental health crisis that now afflicts the survivors of the World Trade Center attack. Write to President George W. Bush. Urge that his administration should provide medical screening and care for those who have "fallen through the cracks" in the system of aide to 9/11 victims and prevent new toxic exposures by conducting an effective testing and cleanup of indoor 9/11 contamination in the affected areas of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Please also write to the federal Environmental Protection Agency Administrator, Stephen L. Johnson. Urge him to to fix the serious flaws in his agency's proposed plan for testing and cleanup of World Trade Center contaminated dust. In doing so, he should heed the concerns raised by members of the World Trade Center Expert Technical Review Panel -- which the federal administration recently disbanded -- and by Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Representative Jerrold Nadler and the coalition of concerned public interest and labor organizations that presented comments to his agency. Finally, please write to your United States Senator and Congressional Representative. Urge them to investigate the ill-advised disaster response tactics in the administration's National Response Plan that contributed to a failed disaster response at Ground Zero and then in the Katrina disaster. Demand a strong, effective federal response to any future disasters.  In the aftermath of the September 11th attack on the World Trade Center, the federal government failed to take proper action to (1) warn the public of the highly toxic hazards from the Ground Zero pollution; (2) enforce safety and health measures for the rescue and recovery workers and (3) conduct an effective testing and cleanup of the contamination that spread over much of Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn. This put innocent families who lived near the towers – and the conscientious workers and small business owners who restored New York City after the disaster – at risk of toxic exposures. Thousands of people today suffer respiratory illnesses and other health impacts from this exposure. Many have no health insurance and are not even receiving medical screening and diagnostic services, let alone proper medical care. These people were on the front line of an attack on America. They deserve strong, effective action from their national government. And everyone should be concerned that the missteps of Ground Zero – bad testing methods, failure to enforce worker safety measures, and lack of a proper cleanup response – are happening again in the Katrina disaster area. The Sierra Club's report, Pollution and Deception at Ground Zero Revisited: Why It Could Happen Again finds that the Bush administration's new National Response Plan fails to guard against the harmful missteps that occurred at Ground Zero and even incorporates some of them as federal policy. More Episodes:
Up to Top HOME | Email Signup | About Us | Contact Us | Terms of Use | © 2008 Sierra Club |
