Anthony DePalma on 9/11 Settlement & His Book "City of Dust: Illness, Arrogance and 9/11"

Anthony DePalma, author of City of Dust: Illness, Arrogance and 9/11:

"Amy Goodman, the long-time host of Democracy Now, invited me on her show to discuss the 21 MC 100 litigation settlement. The segment ran for about 12 minutes and we were able to touch on many important issues that I’ve raised in “City of Dust.” She wanted to know more about the roles that Christie Whitman and Rudy Giuliani played in the early stages of the disaster, and she criticized the early coverage of the ground zero hazards by The New York Times. That was before I was covering the environmental beat, and she had a point. If The Times and other media outlets had forced Whitman to be more specific about her statement that the “air was safe to breathe,” asking her where exactly it was safe, for whom it was safe and when, if they had forced her to be as specific about the ground zero hazards as the EPA usually is about the air quality warnings it puts out on ozone alert days, if they had asked her about the immediate dangers of the high silica content of the dust, which made breathing it like taking in airborne Drano, the cleanup would have unfolded in a far different way."

Democracy Now, November 22, 2010.

CBC - 9/11 Toxic Legacy: A Cloud of Dust

CBC 2006. You Tube play list in 5 parts.

Dust to Dust: The Health Effects of 9/11

Just days after September 11, 2001, the Environmental Protection Agency assured the public that there should be no concern about any health hazards associated with exposure to smoke and debris in lower Manhattan. This disturbing documentary asks whether the EPA's pronouncement was based on science or politics. Now many of the first-responders who risked their lives within that toxic chemical soup are seriously ill or dying. Filmmaker Heidi Dehncke-Fisher and producer Bruce Kennedy reveal how 9/11's latest victims are America's forgotten heroes.

The Sundance Channel. 57 min. First shown on September 11, 2006.