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According to New York Times (1) the health of approximately 40,000 responders and recovery workers may be at risk due to dust, ash and other toxic materials at ground zero. Former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) head Christine Todd Whitman has been under fire, due to allegations that she mislead New Yorkers about the quality of air and the risk was marginalized.

Mind you, the criticism of the EPA's handling of the pertinent issues involving occupational exposure is warranted. "The toxic cloud that formed after the towers fell may have since evaporated, but its effects still linger. Over the past five years, thousands of rescue and recovery workers who worked at the site of the World Trade Center have been discovered to suffer from grave and debilitating respiratory illness (1). " Mount Sinai Medical Center's World Trade Center Worker and Volunteer Medical Screening Program is a comprehensive medical evaluation program to provide free and confidential medical exams, referrals for medical care, and occupational health education for 8,500 workers and volunteers who provided rescue, recovery, debris removal, and sifting and restoration of vital support services at the WTC and Staten Island Landfill sites. The Program is directed by The Mount Sinai Center for Occupational and Environmental Medicine, in partnership with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with medical examinations and related services performed by a consortium of occupational medicine providers (2). Moreover, the stunning findings of the New York Office of the Medical Examiner of Felicia Dunn-Jones, attorney, who was caught in the dust cloud-died of sarcoidosis, a disease that causes inflammation and scarring in the lungs, on Feb. 10, 2002. Furthermore, independent medical studies have made a siginficant correlation of the diagnosis to New York City firefighters, due to the exposure of the dust cloud.

What is disturbing about the allegations of Whitman's leadership during the 9/11 crisis: is her contrasting record. While she served as the 50th Governor of New Jersey, her contributions should not be unnoticed. Under her leadership, the number of days New Jersey violated the federal one-hour air quality standard for ground level ozone dropped from 45 in 1988 to 4 in 2000 (3) Moreover, the New Jersey coastline experienced less closings during her leadership compared with her predecessors. In addition, her tenure at the EPA

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