The Sacramento News & Review, an independent "alternative" newspaper, has named UC Davis emeritus professor of physics and atmospheric science Thomas Cahill as one of the 100 most influential, important and interesting people in Sacramento.
"We tried to recognize those people who have made a contribution over the years, who’ve made Sacramento a better place to live," wrote reporter Cosmo Garvin. "We ended up with a pretty epic list."
Cahill was recognized for his involvement in the environmental disaster at Ground Zero following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. His work revealed that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency misled the public about the safety of air at the former World Trade Center site, the article said. He later became a champion for the workers at the site of the cleanup.
"The debris pile acted like a chemical factory," Cahill is quoted in a 2003 UC Davis news release about his work. "It cooked together the components of the buildings and their contents, including enormous numbers of computers, and gave off gases of toxic metals, acids and organics for at least six weeks."
The conditions were "brutal" for people working at Ground Zero without respirators and slightly less so for those working or living in immediately adjacent buildings, the news release said.
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