A Superfund Site in the Sky -- 9/11 Still Kills

Boy, this is creepy. From the article:

The vacant 41-story former Deutsche Bank AG building looms above ground zero, contaminated with toxic waste and still holding tiny body parts more than four years after the trade center collapsed onto it on Sept. 11, 2001. Removing it from the landscape has become a more challenging task than cleaning up the twin towers.

"That's more or less a vertical Superfund site, and we're living right next to it," said neighborhood resident Esther Regelson, referring to a federal program for cleaning up the nation's most polluted industrial sites. She is concerned that taking down the building improperly will contaminate the area even more.

I think I feel another rant coming on, but I will try to bite my tongue. The short version is this: After 9/11 the Bush administration pushed the EPA to say everything was A-OK in New York, probably because they didn't want to evacuate the whole city for years while they cleaned it up (is New Orleans, post-Katrina, a karmic punishment for this move?). Well, guess what -- the air wasn't safe, the dust was certainly not safe and people are starting to die from Sept. 11-related ailments, such as lung cancer. The Twin Towers were huge liabilities even before they fell because they were filled with asbestos (and other toxins like mercury, lead and fiberglass). Now it seems that the 9/11 death toll might start slowly creeping up if you count people who were exposed to toxic air/materials in the days right afterward.

Almost 5 years later 9/11 is still a forceful event, and the punch it packs can bring death to those who were there that fateful day. There are still many questions about that day that have yet to be fully answered...