“Toxic chemicals and metals are being released into the environment around lower Manhattan by the collapse of the World Trade Center towers and by the fires still burning at Ground Zero,” the Daily News wrote on 26 October 2001. “With the city facing heat from cops and firefighters who say they became sick working at Ground Zero or the Fresh Kills landfill, we would do well to remember the warnings,” the same paper noted two and a half years later (25 May 2004). Indeed!

But while President George W. Bush exploits these workers for campaign purposes, the fact is that he ignores the sick and cuts funding for rescue workers and equipment.

The Daily News based their first article on the World Trade Center “Toxic Zone” on hundreds of pages of environmental tests undertaken by the federal government. The tests showed that asbestos, benzene, heavy metals, dioxins and PCBs were being released into the environment. But a spokesperson for the federal Environmental Protection Agency said there was “nothing to worry about”. Several other officials chimed in. And, as could be expected, they sent this message to the thousands of workers on the rubble pile: “Respirators, when used properly, protect workers from exposure to contaminants.”

Today, some 1,700 firefighters and police officers, who assert they became sick while working at Ground Zero or the Fresh Kills landfill*, have filed lawsuits against New York City. Several have developed cancer. While experts would normally expect many more years to pass before cancer developed, the combination of toxics these people were exposed to was probably unprecedented. Last May, a summary report of scientific studies on Ground Zero pollution was published. It begins: “The destruction of the World Trade Center on 11 September 2001 caused the largest acute environmental disaster that ever has befallen New York City.”

Since the start of his re-election campaign, President Bush has repeatedly described how he was inspired by “the courage of the firefighters and the police” in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks. In a speech, he recounted how, when standing on a pile of rubble at Ground Zero, he was told by a firefighter: “Don’t let me down”.

Yet, he does. He continues to ignore the needs of firefighters and police officers who got sick from their rescue efforts. The White House sought to hide evidence that workers had been exposed to hazardous toxins and then tried to block $90 million in funding for medical treatment. When Congress forced the Administration to accept the expenditure, they delayed releasing the money and threatened to shut down the health-screening programme.

“I’m disappointed but not surprised that the President would try to trade on the heroism of those firefighters in the September 11 attacks. The use of 9/11 images are hypocrisy at its worst,” the General President of the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF), Harold Schaitberger, said in a statement issued on 4 March 2004.

As the President unveiled new political advertisements that use images of firefighters, Schaitberger added: “Bush is calling on the biggest disaster in our country’s history, and indeed in the history of the fire service, to win sympathy for his campaign. Since the attacks, Bush has been using images of himself putting his arm around a retired firefighter on the pile of rubble at Ground Zero. But for two and a half years he has basically shortchanged firefighters and the safety of our homeland by not providing firefighters the resources needed to do the job that America deserves.”

“The fact is Bush’s actions have resulted in fire stations closing in communities around the country,” the IAFF statement goes on to say. “Two-thirds of America’s fire departments remain under-staffed because Bush is failing to enforce a new law that would put more firefighters in our communities. The President’s budget proposes to cut Homeland Security Department funding for first responders** by $700 million for next year and cuts funding for a grant program that helps fire departments fund equipment needs by $250 million.

“We’re going to be aggressive and vocal in our efforts to ensure that the citizens of this country know about Bush’s poor record on protecting their safety and providing for the needs of the people who are supposed to respond in an emergency.”


* Fresh Kills is where two million tons of World Trade Center debris was taken.
** First responders are those who are first on an emergency scene: police, ambulance staff, firefighters…