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NEWS BRIEFS

Date Posted: November 28 2003

Military money migrates to Michigan
Michigan is set to receive $31 million in federal money for military construction projects around the state.

U.S. Senators Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow made the announcement on Nov. 12. The money will be directed to state National Guard and Reserve units. "Because Guard and Reserve units play an increasingly active role in America's defense, top-notch training facilities and equipment are more important than ever," Stabenow said.

$9.6 million for the construction of a Joint Medical Training Facility at Selfridge Air National Guard Base.

$8.5 million to replace the dining facility at the Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center in Alpena.

$5.591 million for a new Army National Guard Readiness Center in Jackson.

$3.370 million for a new Single Unit Armory in Calumet.

$3.508 for an new Army National Guard Readiness Center in Shiawassee County.

$1.114 million for upgrades of the Army National Guard Readiness Center in Pontiac.

Probe of EPA sought for World Trade response
Thousands of construction workers and other first-responders developed breathing difficulties after they worked at the site of the collapsed World Trade center towers.

But the first response of the federal government to questions about potential toxins in the dust from the fallout of the buildings was that the air was safe to breathe. Since then, workers have developed a number of breathing ailments, but the federal government has yet to acknowledge - much less provide treatment for - the dangers that were in the air.

Now a group of U.S. House Democrats are weighing in on the matter, with a letter to Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) encouraging him to launch an investigation into the Environmental Protection Agency's response to the collapse of the World Trade Center.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats said that a week after the terrorist attack, the EPA assured New Yorkers that the air was safe to breathe even though the agency had taken no indoor air samples, and outdoor tests showed unsafe levels of asbestos. According to a report by the U.S. inspector general, the EPA also did not test for PCBs, dioxins, volatile organic compounds and fine particles.

According to the Construction Labor Report, the inspector general report found that the EPA "prematurely assured the public on the safety of the air at the World Trade Center site. The report also criticized the close involvement of the White House in communicating risks to the public, saying the Council on Environmental Quality pressed the EPA to make the early assurances."

University of California professor Thomas Cahill said the burning pile of debris was like "a chemical factory" similar to an "uncontrolled, oxygen-poor municipal incinerator." He said conditions were "brutal" at the site for people working without respirators, and "only slightly less so" for those who worked or lived in immediately adjacent buildings.

He said for four classes of fine and very fine metal pollutant, "we recorded the highest levels we have ever seen in over 7,000 measurements" of polluted sites throughout the world.

The New York City Health Department has set up a registry to survey people with health problems who worked at the World Trade Center site. As of September of this year, more than 6,500 people from 45 states and eight nations had signed up for the registry, according to the Construction Labor Report.