'Dust to Dust'; 'America Rebuilds II' Sundance Channel tonite.

[Guest guest]

September 11, 2006

TV Review | 'Dust to Dust'; 'America Rebuilds II'

Buildings Rise From Rubble While Health Crumbles

By _ANITA GATES_ (http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?ppds=bylL & v1=ANITA

GATES & fdq=19960101 & td=sysdate & sort=newest & ac=ANITA GATES & inline=nyt-per)

“I looked, and I just saw this wall of black and gray coming at me,â€

remembers Ron Baumann, a New York City police officer who was at ground zero

five

years ago today. He is referring to the overwhelming cloud of smoke and dust

that enveloped the streets of Lower Manhattan as the two World Trade Center

towers collapsed.

“Dust to Dust: The Health Effects of 9/11,†a powerful and persuasive

one-hour documentary on the Sundance Channel tonight, analyzes that cloud (“a

devastating toxic soup containing more than 2,500 contaminantsâ€) and addresses

its devastating legacy for the thousands of workers and others who breathed it

in.

News reports have mentioned some of these contaminants before, but this film

is an eye-opener, superimposing the information in large letters on the

screen and explaining some of their sources. In addition to more than 400 tons

of

asbestos, this film counts 90,000 tons of jet fuel containing benzene;

mercury from more than a half-million fluorescent lights; 200,000 pounds of

lead

and cadmium from computers; crystalline silica from 420,000 tons of concrete,

plasterboard and glass; and perhaps as much as two million pounds of

polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from the diesel-fueled fires. Some of those

substances are carcinogens; others can cause kidney, liver, heart and

nervous-system

damage.

And there is film of emergency-response workers, most without respirators or

masks, digging through the debris while fires smoldered.

Every disaster seeks a villain, and “Dust to Dust,†directed by Heidi

Dehncke-Fisher, gives that honor to _ Todd Whitman_

(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/w/christine_todd_whi\

tman/index.html?inli

ne=nyt-per) , then administrator of the _Environmental Protection Agency_

(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/e/environment\

a

l_protection_agency/index.html?inline=nyt-org) . Ms. Whitman is shown several

times reassuring reporters that the air is safe. In all fairness, on at

least two of those occasions her reassurances (“There is not a reason for the

general public to be concernedâ€) technically appear to refer to New York as a

whole rather than to the affected areas near the twin towers. This is, at best,

a sin of omission.

Former Mayor _Rudolph W. Giuliani_

(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/g/rudolph_w_giuliani\

/index.html?inline=nyt-per) , New

Yorkers’ hero of the day, is seen at a lectern announcing, “The air quality

is

safe and acceptable.†D. Brown, the erstwhile director of the

_Federal

Emergency Management Agency_

(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/f/federal_eme\

rgency_management_agency/index.html?inline=nyt-

org) , comes off as relatively harmless, merely promising the federal

government’s help.

The program’s revelations about the rewriting of E.P.A. publicity releases

are particularly damning. A Sept. 16, 2001, statement about one contaminant

originally stated that samples “showed levels of asbestos ranging from 2.1

percent to 3.3 percent†and that the agency “views a 1 percent level as a

definition for asbestos-containing material.†That wording was changed to say,

with

an Orwellian touch, that samples “contained small percentages of asbestosâ€

and described those levels as “slightly above the 1 percent trigger for

defining asbestos material.†Cautionary information in some releases is

deleted

altogether.

These rewrites are openly, disapprovingly discussed here by Nikki L. Tinsley,

the E.P.A.’s former inspector general.

Many victims speak on camera for themselves, discussing their early symptoms

(like nosebleeds and hacking coughs) and their current battles with an array

of serious illnesses.

Dr. M. Levin of Mount Sinai Hospital discusses the hospital’s

screening program for World Trade Center responders and a report showing that

more

than half of those screened had serious respiratory problems. But the most

powerful statement he makes is a simple one, about the workers’ fights to

receive disability benefits and pay their medical bills: “These people deserve

better than that.â€

Last week the results of a new, larger Mount Sinai study were announced. This

one, covering almost 10,000 workers, revealed that roughly 70 percent of

them had new or worsened respiratory problems since Sept. 11, 2001.

It would be more difficult and even more frustrating to watch “Dust to Dustâ€

if a Congressional subcommittee did not appear to be taking action, as of

Friday. _Representative Jerrold Nadler_

(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/n/jerrold_nadler/ind\

ex.html?inline=nyt-per) has

introduced a bill to cover these sick workers, downtown residents and

neighborhood

schoolchildren under Medicare. Representative _Carolyn B. Maloney_

(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/carolyn_b_maloney/\

index.html

?inline=nyt-per) has introduced a bill to reopen the Victim Compensation

Fund to pay for those patients’ health care. _ O. Leavitt_

(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/l/michael_o_leavitt/\

index.html?i

nline=nyt-per) , Secretary of Health and Human Services, has appointed Dr.

O. Agwunobi, assistant secretary for health, to lead a task force on the

issue.

Meanwhile Mr. Baumann, who describes the cloud of smoke and debris at the

beginning of the documentary, has heart disease, lung scarring and nascent

emphysema. He has never smoked, he says, and has been a vegetarian for 30 years.

“

At 43 I’m having a quadruple bypass,†he says. “What’s causing that?â€

America Rebuilds II

It is not clear at first what a group of fresh-faced teenagers in

burg, Kan., could possibly be doing in “America Rebuilds II: Return to

Ground

Zero.†But as soon as they board the bus for their class trip to New York, we

see their part in the future of ground zero. As tourists.

In this formulaic but fairly informative documentary, to be shown on _PBS_

(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/p/public_broa\

d

casting_service/index.html?inline=nyt-org) stations tonight, the students

pack their bags, watch video of the World Trade Center attacks on the bus and

reflect on the fact that the tallest building in their hometown is four

stories. One girl recalls her terror that day because her father is a pilot for

American Airlines. (She was soon reassured that he was safe.)

When the students finally reach the site, one boy observes, “You really don’

t see the trauma†because it has been “wiped clean.†But the student’s

tour

guide, Lee Ielpi, makes an impression when he reveals that his son ,

a firefighter, lost his life on Sept. 11, 2001, trying to save others.

That is the program’s only truly touching scene, but poignancy is hardly its

primary goal. Most of the film is relentlessly upbeat, almost boosterish,

even when anyone can read fear between the lines.

The first corporate tenants sign up for the new 7 World Trade Center

building, and employees insist that they won’t suffer from anxiety going to

work

every day on a high floor. The building’s new, wider stairwells are shown,

which

is good, it is pointed out, because now firefighters have more space to run

upstairs while frightened tenants pass them, going in the opposite direction.

Prospective tour guides for the disaster site go through training.

Arad’s winning design for the trade center memorial is shown: its has two

waterfall fountains and underground stone walls bearing the names of the dead.

The first sign of conflict is over that design. Some family members don’t

want their loved ones’ names underground. Others object to the underground

setting because the vibration of subway trains will be felt by visitors to the

memorial.

The program estimates a completion date of the entire new trade center

complex by 2011. Just in time for the 10th anniversary of the tragedy that made

it

necessary.

DUST TO DUST

THE HEALTH EFFECTS OF 9/11

Sundance, tonight at 10, Eastern and Pacific times; 9, Central time.

Heidi Dehncke-Fisher, director; Bruce Kennedy, producer.

AMERICA REBUILDS II

RETURN TO GROUND ZERO

_PBS_ (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/time

stopics/organizations/p/public_broadcasting_service/index.html?inline=nyt-org) ,

tonight at 9; check

local listings.

Ken Mandel and Dan Polin, executive producers; Seth Kramer and A.

, producers and writers. Produced by Great Projects Film Company.