Introduction 650, a proposal currently before the City Council to require permits for the use of environmental testing equipment, is receiving vocal criticism from many downtown community leaders. The Introduction, put forth late last year, seeks to regulate testing equipment designed to detect biological, chemical and radiological agents. If passed, Intro 650 will require all non-governmental owners and operators of such equipment to register their devices and the deployment thereof with the NYPD. It would also set standards for the operation of such equipment.
Given that independent environmental testing was a crucial part of downtown recovery after September 11, at times conflicting with and prompting corrections from official reports, Intro 650 is cause for alarm among several downtown leaders. Erin Drinkwater of Congressman Nadler’s office echoed this concern at a recent CB1 meeting, stating, “…if this was in effect on 9/11, there’d have been serious ramifications in terms of the independent data that was gathered to state that the EPA sampling was incorrect.” State Assembly Member Deborah Glick’s office called the proposal “the antithesis of an open democracy,” and said that such a law would “severely compromise the community’s ability to act with information.” Intro 650 is currently before the City Council Committee on Public Safety.
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2 comments:
how are the council sponsors justifying this as a proposal? is there some claim that the tests themselves could harm public health?
the public danger of "false alarms". Of which, to date, there have been none.
There's also several vague gestures towards setting up standards regarding equipment quality and accuracy, as well as necessitating that the city be notified about dangerous findings, but the language is broad, does not apply to governmental agencies, and frankly those two goals can be easily accomplished without necessitating registration.
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