And We Trust The EPA...Why?

A new study published last week by the National Academy of Sciences says there's nothing to worry about. All those toxins, all that asbestos and other crap thrown into the air by the collapse of the Twin Towers? No problem at all. All the fumes and poison dust drifted away in the blink of an eye, so the people who were living down there face no increased cancer risk. Not a big one anyway-except for the recovery workers, who were exposed to much higher doses. They might want to keep an eye on things, but shouldn't fret too much.

"So relax, have yourself a piece of pie and quit your bellyaching. If you do end up with cancer, it's probably from something else."

It sort of reminds us of the EPA conclusions in the months following the attacks. The air was clean and safe, they promised. They even did tests to prove it. And they kept saying the same thing for a long time, until they finally admitted only recently that, no, the air wasn't really all that clean or safe, after all.

The conclusions here just strike us as a little premature-especially when they're talking about cancer. Tests of immediate air quality are one thing, but cancer takes time. Fact of the matter is, they don't know what the cancer rates are going to be like. They haven't conducted any longitudinal studies, and have nary a clue what sorts of things may start cropping up five, 10 or 15 years down the line. And the fact that workers at Ground Zero are already beginning to report some serious health problems doesn't bode well.

It makes us wonder who these happy-go-lucky researchers have to answer to.