that the fumes from the pile of 9/11 caused any cancers, but very few people who are in knowledge of this doubt that it will and that s why this is such an important decision by dr. john howard who heads the 9/11 fund. robert bazell, thank you very much. thanks for joining us today. other unfinished business from 9/11 to prevent another attack on the homeland and on u.s. targets around the world, that is the job, continuing job of the counter terrorism center led for years under both presidents bush and obama. michael lighter now joins me. michael, good to have you with us today. you spent many years at the counter terrorism center. you all assumed there would be another attack. what do you think were the signature things that you and your colleagues did and many agencies to prevent that from happening? i think it was the hard work of the people in two administrations, democratic and republican, working both taking the fight to the terrorists
after all these are heros like our veterans. nbc chief science and health correspondent robert bazell joins me now. bob, we remember back when the epa was saying no worries, nothing is wrong with the air there and we all know what has happened since. finally these people are being compensated although there s still big health issues for those still ill. a lot of health issues, andrea. the idea that air and those of us who breathed it, the idea that air was somehow not unhealthful, was just a fantasy. it was terrible. it had every kind of pollution you could imagine in it, including just plain all kinds of metallic dust as well as toxins and the idea that it won t lead to cancer is just absurd. now it takes many years to prove that it will cause cancer because as we know from studies of smoking and other carcinogens it takes many years between the exposure and the cancer. there s no scientific proof yet
this is the cbs evening news with dan rather. we ll take a break for a commercial, we ll break for commercial, we ll be right back. they are saying fight adds, not arabs. mr. rather apologized for the eruption in the studio and then started his newscast. the same protesters got into the studios of the pbs nightly newscast that night, trying to chain themselves to one of the anchors. they tried and failed to get into the nbc nightly news newscast. six months before that day, that same group of protesters launched a massive protest at the national institutes of health. watch tom brokaw here. this was a major day of aids activists in the country. 1,000 of them converging of the national institutes of health, demanding more research on the disease. 81 arrests. robert bazell with more on a group that s taking the struggle to the streets and beyond that.
has been successful in getting the food and drug administration to loosen the regulations on new drugs for aids. now the activists are trying to force scientists to work faster and to test new treatments. in the past scientists have strongly resisted such pressure. actup thinks the scientists can be made to listen. robert bazell, nbc news, bethesda. that was in may of 1990, that report. a few months earlier, in the fall of 1989, seven members of the same protest group had chained themselves to the balcony at the new york stock exchange and the opening bell and unfurled a banner that said sell welcome. welcome was the company that made azt, the only real aids drug available at that time. available, technically, at a cost of $10,000 a year in 1989 dollars. the new york stock exchange had trade halted that day for the first time, that was not due to wartime. the company dropped the price of azt soon after the demonstration. the group that did all of this was act up, and it was founded 2
demonstration. i call that the inside/outside strategy. reporter: strategy, enormously successful to get the fda to loosen new regulations for aids. now they are trying to force scientists to work faster to develop and test new treatments. in the past, scientists have strongly resisted such pressure. actup thinks the scienthcts can be made to listen. robert bazell, nbc news, bethesda. may of 1990, that report. a few months earlier, in the fall of 1989, seven members of the same protest group had chained themselves to the balcony at the new york stock exchange and infurled a banner that said sell welcome. they made azt, only aids drug, technically at a cost of $10,000 a year in 1989 dollars. new york stock exchange had