PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Matthew McCauley, Attorney at 911 Health Watch, on 9/11 Document Transparency
1:27:54
ยท
3 min
Matthew McCauley, an attorney for 911 Health Watch and a 9/11 first responder, testified about the need for transparency regarding documents related to the environmental hazards following 9/11. He emphasized the importance of accessing this information for ongoing health studies, particularly for the 9/11 survivor community and their children.
- Criticized the city's cryptic responses to information requests and their request for blanket immunity
- Highlighted the importance of these documents for the World Trade Center Health Program's youth cohort study, including the in utero population
- Urged for the release of information to be analyzed by scientists, rather than having DOI investigate the existence of documents
Matthew McCauley
1:27:54
Good morning.
1:27:54
Thank you very much.
1:27:55
It's Matthew McAuley.
1:27:56
I'm co counsel with mister Carboy.
1:27:59
I also present myself as a 911 first responder myself, a survivor who worked down there and as an advocate who's in DC with John Field.
1:28:06
You know, these particular requests start out as information requests by people like yourself who are looking for information.
1:28:11
They're not set up as litigation issues.
1:28:14
They are truly what we know is that we're trying to get the information as science is catching up to what we already know.
1:28:21
The documents that are there and the information that's there from the city's response has been cryptic to concerning.
1:28:28
You have, on one side of it, the city saying it doesn't know if it has any documents, and it's just they have documents, and then they're asking for blanket immunity and liability protection if there are documents that are there.
1:28:38
These are all things that throw up red flags.
1:28:41
There's issues that have been there.
1:28:42
It should have even come to a foil request.
1:28:44
It should have been a presentation of these documents.
1:28:47
To go back in time, most of the people here remember Geraldo Rivera opening up Al Capone's vaults.
1:28:53
What's in the vault?
1:28:54
Is there anything in the vault?
1:28:55
And most of us lost 2 hours of our lives waiting for the answer to that, which was more or less nothing.
1:29:00
Here, you have a situation where the city has these documents.
1:29:03
They've alluded to the documents.
1:29:04
Yet, at the same time, there's no presentation whatsoever for them.
1:29:08
We're we're now moving to the point of having DOI coming in to actually look and see whether there's they to see if there's documents that are there.
1:29:15
This is not something that they need to be doing.
1:29:17
You know, these documents are out there.
1:29:19
Let the city look at it.
1:29:20
Right now, really important when it comes to this community is the World Trade Center Health Program has now embarked on what's called the youth cohort.
1:29:27
The youth cohort is involves people who are actually in their forties right now.
1:29:31
But there's actually a subsection of that that study that involves the in utero population.
1:29:36
Those those women who became pregnant, either while they were working on the pile, working downtown.
1:29:40
That includes the police officers, the firefighters, EMS, all emergency workers that were working downtown.
1:29:45
But let's not just focus on the responders.
1:29:48
You have the survivors.
1:29:49
This country turned around within days of 911 and showed the rest of the world we would not back down on terrorism, we would not cave into anything when it came to terrorists.
1:29:57
And they went back to work.
1:29:59
And when they went back to work, they went back down to lower Manhattan.
1:30:02
They filled the office buildings.
1:30:03
They filled the areas in the areas in the buildings around it.
1:30:06
They went back to work across the street.
1:30:09
The information that's there we're seeking may be relevant to those particular studies.
1:30:14
And in utero study was never done.
1:30:16
At this point, the only way your child is eligible if you were pregnant at 9:11, the only way your child is actually eligible for health care is after you gave birth, if you brought the child back into New York.
1:30:25
Most medical professionals would would balk at that, that somehow this particular program doesn't even at least look at those children that were, in utero at the time.
1:30:34
The documentation that we have that may come out is something that we'd be looking at to turn over to the scientists.
1:30:41
DOI doesn't need scientists.
1:30:43
They don't need medical professionals to make those decisions.
1:30:45
Those are supposed to be made by people who are undertaking studies.
1:30:49
Unfortunately, DOI is being called into a situation where they have to look as to whether or not these documents actually exist.
1:30:55
When Luis Alvarez testified before Congress, he made 2 very specific statements.
1:31:01
One was that there was no place else in the world you wanted to be.
1:31:05
There was no race, there was no politics, there was no religion.
1:31:08
Everybody was down there for the common bond.
1:31:10
Well, that was the exact same thing that happened when everybody came back to work.
1:31:13
These are people in the community I'm wrapping up.
1:31:15
These are people who are in the community who need to be taken care of.
1:31:18
Also, that people's families are not worth more than each other's.
1:31:21
Take care of these families, take care of the responders, Get the information so it can be analyzed.
Gale A. Brewer
1:31:26
Thank you.
Matthew McCauley
1:31:26
That's all we're asking for at this point.
Gale A. Brewer
1:31:27
Thank you very much.