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A Disaster Without Boundaries September 11, 2001 was a difficult day for almost everyone in these United States. The moment that first plane hit, it was certain that the events of that day would continue to raise questions for many years to come. Of course there would be questions such as how, who, and why it happened, but the overarching question my community board faced was how it would affect our environment today and tomorrow. This is not the senseless rhetorical question one might think. It is a real concern that the affect of air contamination from the collapse of the World Trade towers may linger for a very long time. The central focuses of the meeting were several statements made by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the week following the 9/11 disaster. In these statements, the EPA stated that the area surrounding the disaster zone was clean and contained uncontaminated, breathable air (Simpson). The EPA believed there were minimal levels of asbestos and even lesser levels of heavy metals, diesel fuel, dioxin, and PCB’s in the air. But it would later be revealed nearly one year later, that there did in fact exist strong amounts of asbestos in the surrounding areas of the disaster zone: Some resi