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In the hours following the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center (WTC), firefighters, police, and emergency medical technicians performed acts of enormous courage. Many of them died or were exposed to health-damaging substances while performing these heroic deeds. Unfortunately, while many bureaucrats were unctuously praising these heroes, irresponsible and deceptive post-attack actions by some officials paved the way for many more illnesses and deaths among workers and residents in lower Manhattan. "What happened here is at the level of Watergate," charges Dr. Marjorie Clarke, scientist-in-residence at Lehman College in New York and an expert on toxic emissions. read more

One of the great accomplishments during the second half of the 20th century was the effort that culminated in the eradication of smallpox, the killer that claimed more lives than all of the century’s wars combined. Judith Miller, Stephen Engelberg, and William Broad, the authors of Germs: Biological Weapons and America’s Secret War(Simon & Schuster), are concerned with smallpox and a plethora of other virulent diseases. But the story they tell is anything but inspirational. read more

Henry Drew worked at an East Fishkill, New York, semiconductor plant for 15 years. He remembers how four women workers had miscarriages and that several others complained about a variety of illnesses. One of them was his wife Debbie, who had to undergo two operations to remove brain tumors and remains partially paralyzed from the experiences. Debbie left the computer chip industry in 1989; Henry in 1992.

Drew adamantly believes that the US government should have played a stronger role in monitoring the semiconductor industry in the 1980s to protect worker health and prevent safety problems. "I wrote a letter to OSHA [Occupational Safety and Health and Administration] and never got a reply," Drew said. "I can recall officials from that agency coming to inspect the plant only once or twice. Given the number of people getting sick, you would think that OSHA would have taken a closer look." read more