The former head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Christine Todd Whitman, has apologized for saying the air in Manhattan was safe to breathe after 9/11.
Though she never said she lied, in an interview with the Guardian Whitman acknowledged she “feels awful” about the people affected by her remarks.
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Since the attacks, hundreds of people who have died after inhaling deadly toxins in the aftermath while thousands more continue to be affected.
“Whatever we got wrong, we should acknowledge and people should be helped,” she told the Guardian.
“I’m very sorry that people are sick. I’m very sorry that people are dying and if the EPA and I in any way contributed to that, I’m sorry. We did the very best we could at the time with the knowledge we had.”
Whitman’s remarks came a day before the 15th anniversary of the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, when two planes crashed into the Twin Towers causing them to collapse, sending debris, dust, smoke and dangerous toxins out into the surrounding area.
A week after the deadly attack, Whitman and the EPA issued a statement saying the public wasn’t exposed to “excessive levels of asbestos or other harmful substances.”
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“I am glad to reassure the people of New York and Washington D.C. that their air is safe to breathe and their water is safe to drink.”
But they had no scientific basis to be making those statements. According to a 2003 report by the EPA’s inspector general, there was not enough data to know either way and the White House under George Bush had influenced the EPA’s statement, the New York Times reported.
Since then, Whitman has maintained that she was merely relaying what EPA scientists were telling her.
In 2008 she was ruled not liable for the false safety claims, since she did not intend to cause harm, the Washington Post reported.
In 2011, the World Trade Center Health Program (WTCHP) was set up to provide treatment and monitor those affected by the attacks on 9/11.
The Guardian reports that over 37,000 people are registered as sick and over 1,100 registered with WTCHP have died.
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