Hugh Kauffman: A More Civilized Approach to Responding to Environmental Disasters

Hugh Kauffman founded the Environmental Protection Agency in 1971 and is currently acting as ombudsman and senior policy analyst for that agency. Kauffman, who specializes in emergency response, says that a government cover-up is taking place to hide information about the dangerous toxins in the flood waters of the Gulf Coast region. Having served in both Republican and Democratic administrations, Kauffman says that the Bush administration is preventing the EPA from releasing information that oil and chemical companies are mandated by law to provide. He says that the Bush Administration’s cover-up is endangering residents and relief workers throughout the Gulf Coast region, who are being exposed to dangerous levels of toxins, some of which have been proven to cause cancer and birth defects. From his vantage point as the chief investigator for the 9/11 cleanup, he can confidently say that the Bush administration engaged in the same practice after 9/11—covering up the truth about the dangers in the air and water and lying to the public in the weeks after the disaster. Kauffman reports that over 75% of the heroes who responded to 9/11 have gotten sick, and in some cases have died, because of exposure to toxins at Ground Zero, and that he fears a similar fate will befall relief workers and residents in the Gulf Coast.