JUDGE FINDS NYC AND SILVERSTEIN MUST ANSWER TO SENDING WORKERS INTO TOXIC ENVIRONMENTS NEW YORK
Government Will Have to Answer With Silverstein New York City and State officials along with a slew of Larry Silverstein contractors were knocked back a loop as they tried to deny any culpability in sending workers into toxic laced environments during the months of cleanup in NYC after 911.
We can all recall Christine Whitman telling all of New York city and the world that day and the next that the air quality was just fine and everyone should get back to work. Nothing more than mere drywall masks were provided to most workers along with this fraudulent synopsis of the air quality.
As the exact duplicity of the Federal government has not been ascertained yet, because of the negligence of the State’s prosecutor Elliot Spitzer to bring Whitman to trial, the people most affected now are those workers who cleaned up the mess the demolition of the three towers and inhaled their toxic residues. A toxic brew that is spelled out in the FEMA report of just what the dust contained in the various locations. None of which would qualify as safe to breathe, even for the likes of Spitzer.
Late yesterday Judge Alvin K. Hellerstien dismissed the claims by Con Ed and Larry Silverstein companies that they should not be culpable for sending workers into toxic filled waste when they had no legal control over the area. The judge sees that Larry and Co. are going to see the responsibility through to their workers. Allowing them to go into this work knowing that the toxic levels were so high should be criminal.
"If even a minority of the plaintiffs suffered serious injuries to their respiratory tracts arising from the acrid air of September 11, their claims deserve to be heard when a recovery could make a difference in their lives… The scar to the public interest needs to be cleansed, speedily, in good time." the judge wrote in his opinion.
A newly released report showed that 7 out of 10 workers on the site that day are now suffering respiratory illness. Other reports show the regular civilian populations of Brooklyn and lower Manhattan are showing a vast increase in new cancers and scaring of the lungs.
When the toxins in the dust are factored into the lungs of some 14 million daily workers, and those that passed through the zone of poisons those days following the demolitions there is no doubt that the toll of deaths related to 911 in NYC will be in the millions.