This is bizarre... (Harmless Gas Testing)

Comments

• daveb

  August 2005

  They conducted the same tests, only indoors at Grand Central a few months ago.
• anonymous

  August 2005

  They are trying in their pitiful way to prepare the populace, law enforcement, and emergency providers for "the inevitable." Unfortunately, as 9/11 proved so powerfully, no matter how many security studies you conduct (as was done by the Port Authority after the '93 bombings), how much"hardening" you provide within the structural and other building systems, to what extent you limit building passes, how much screening you conduct in order to allow visitors to get get past the security guards at the elevators, etc., etc., etc., etc., some group or individual will find a way.
• anonymous

  August 2005

  the above was by FLUTE (at my office computer and forgot my password :oops: - such is my brain on, whatever)
• dailyheights

  August 2005

  OK, I went and did the Google News search myself... geez, you guys...
  
  From Newsday (appears to be one of the only news outlets that picked up on Siegel's press conference):

  In four locations, researchers released the colorless, odorless gases using syringe pumps, which slowly dispense several milliliters of the tracer in liquid form at regular intervals. When the tracer leaves the pump, it evaporates almost immediately.
  
  The gases, which have been used to study air patterns for decades, pose no health risk to New Yorkers.

  Sounds like a total yawn to me - why is Siegel making such a huge deal out of this? Is Homeland Security withholding information? By saying "all New Yorkers have the right to know the details about any such experiments," is Siegel trying to imply a cover-up or conspiracy?
  
  From Daily News:

  
  
  Norman Siegel, the civil rights lawyer and candidate for public advocate, scolded city officials yesterday for what he said was a poor job of alerting New Yorkers about an anti-terrorism experiment that would release harmless gases in Manhattan.
  
  Siegel said even if the gases are harmless, New Yorkers have a right to avoid them if they wish.
  
  But a spokesman for Mayor Bloomberg fired back, saying plans by Homeland Security authorities to release odorless "tracer" gases in midtown to mimic a possible terrorist attack have been widely publicized.
  
  Government scientists announced Friday that they plan to release tiny amounts of the harmless gases six times this month to see how toxic chemicals, germs or radioactive dust might move around the city.
  
  Jerrod Bernstein, a spokesman for the city Office of Emergency Management, said that community boards in midtown were notified and information was available through the city's 311 phone service.
• candicissima

  August 2005

  Was it even that big of a secret? I found about it the day of via CNN/some internet news at work. My friend and I were talking about how one gas point was her block and how safe and secure it made her feel.
• daveb

  August 2005

  Candicissima wrote: Was it even that big of a secret? I found about it the day of via CNN/some internet news at work. My friend and I were talking about how one gas point was her block and how safe and secure it made her feel.

  Safe and secure at a gas point.
• carnivore

  August 2005

  dailyheights wrote: Sounds like a total yawn to me - why is Siegel making such a huge deal out of this? Is Homeland Security withholding information? By saying "all New Yorkers have the right to know the details about any such experiments," is Siegel trying to imply a cover-up or conspiracy?

  I usually wholeheartedly support most ACLU positions, but I think Siegel is out of line here. While I agree that NYers might have a right to be informed that such an experiment was taking place, publicizing the details of those results puts everyone at risk, particularly if they are studying dispersal patterns of potential gas releases. That information would be way too useful to potential terrorists and does not belong in the public domain.
• anonymous

  August 2005

  How long did it take before it was finally reported in the Daily News after 9/11 that the air downtown was determined to be contaminated with significant amounts of benzene, dioxin, etc.? It took many, many months for that to come out. Not that that was a "homeland security issue" per se --- it was (in my humble opinion) more the EPA withholding information which they presumably had within days or weeks of the event (within days there was a DEP air monitoring van right in front of my office which was at Franklin and Broadway).
  
  Anyway, my motto is: don't believe anything anybody tells you these days when it comes to this kind of stuff.
• anonymous

  August 2005

  Flute .. again.