Official defends WTC air advice

By Laura Trevelyan
BBC News, New York

The WTC towers' collapse released toxic dust

The US official who said the air at Ground Zero in New York was safe after 9/11 has defended her advice.

Christine Todd Whitman, formerly the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, told a Congressional hearing she followed scientific experts.

However she added she had always said the air quality at Ground Zero differed from elsewhere in Lower Manhattan.

Last month, New York City officially linked a death to the toxic dust from the World Trade Center's collapse.

Honesty claim

In the anxious days following the attacks on 11 September 2001 which destroyed the World Trade Center, government officials insisted the air in Lower Manhattan was safe to breathe.

The public face of reassurance was Christine Todd Whitman.

Now thousands who are ill blame the toxic dust they inhaled.

Ms Whitman faced her critics at a Congressional hearing and insisted she had always been honest with the public.

"EPA's most extreme critics have alleged that I knowingly misled New Yorkers and the workers of Ground Zero about the safety risks associated with environmental contamination," she said.

"The destructive and incendiary charge was investigated by EPA's inspector-general, who confirmed in her 2003 report that we did not conceal any of our test data from the public.

"In fact, within days of the 9/11 report, I authorised EPA to post all the test data, all of it, on a public website. I did so precisely because I wanted to be as transparent to the public as possible," she added.

Ms Whitman was adamant that her advice was based on what scientific experts were telling her.

This was a testy and sometimes emotional hearing.

Ms Whitman said her public pronouncements about the air being safe to breathe were aimed at those in Lower Manhattan.

Her agency had always advised that those working at Ground Zero should wear protective clothing, she said.