Newsday today reveals that EPA animal tests concluded that the World Trade Center debris dust caused lung disease in test animals and that the EPA didn’t begin testing debris dust until 10 days after Sept. 11.

U.S. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and Rep. Jerrold Nadler have called for a Congressional investigation over reports that the Environmental Protection Agency and White House mislead the public over the health hazards of the collapse of the World Trade Center.

Clinton said, “I know a little bit about how White Houses work. I know somebody picked up a phone, somebody got on a computer, somebody sent an e-mail, somebody called for a meeting, somebody in that White House probably under instructions from somebody further up the chain told the E.P.A.: `Don’t tell the people of New York the truth.’ And I want to know who that is.”

Meanwhile Newsday revealed today that the government did not begin testing debris dust near the World Trade Center until 10 days after the Sept. 11 attacks.

And Newsday reports that EPA scientists later concluded — but never told the public — that the dust caused lung disease in test animals.

The EPA began reassuring the public weeks before it had any test results on the air quality.

• Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY)