An Education and Labor Committee hearing this week saw House Democrats criticizing the actions of federal officials in failing to protect rescue and recovery workers after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) should have enforced the use of respirators, already required under existing regulation. Because OSHA didn’t enforce the regulations, 70 percent of first responders are sick, aside from those who have already died. At the Pentagon, where OSHA did enforce the regulations, workers have not developed respiratory illnesses as those in New York have. Con Edison employees working in New York were likewise required to wear respirators and have not gotten sick. Democrats also complained that EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman endangered recovery workers when she announced that the air in New York was safe to breathe because it encouraged first responders to work without respiratory protection. The head of the Mount Sinai medical program that treats rescue and recovery workers from the World Trade Center cleanup reported that more than 21,000 workers have received treatment for respiratory, gastrointestinal and mental health problems. He also stressed however that, because the asbestos and other toxic substances that were in the air after the attacks can cause illnesses that appear years after toxic exposures, we do not know what the long-term damage from these exposures will be.
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