Dear Senator:

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 same problems have occurred in the inadequate federal response to the Katrina Hurricane disaster. 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. This means that the same problems are likely to arise in any future disaster that causes a release of toxic substances into the environment.

Please investigate the 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 aftermath of the Katrina Hurricane. Demand that our federal government must provide a strong, effective federal response to protect the public against harmful toxic exposures from any future disasters.

Sincerely,