Lower Manhattan residents say post-Sandy generators spewing toxic fumes

A generator in Lower Manhattan
A generator in Lower Manhattan

As a handful of buildings in Lower Manhattan continue to operate without power after Hurricane Sandy, the fumes created by the many generators powering those buildings could be making residents ill, the New York Post reported. “The street and the apartment smells. I’m coughing and short of breath,” Barry Rosenthal, a resident at 24 Beaver Street, told the Post. “It’s not right to breathe this stuff. It’s harmful.”

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City Councilmember Margaret Chin wrote to state Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Joseph Martins on Friday, citing constituent concerns, he Post said. “After 9/11, residents were assured by government that the air was safe to breathe. Sadly, this turned out not to be the case,” Chin said in the letter, according to the Post. [NYP] –Guelda Voien