NEW YORK -- Former Secretary of the Environmental Protection Agency Christine Todd Whitman said Thursday that the Giuliani administration appeared to be more concerned with its image than the safety and speedy response of EPA employees in the wake of the 2001 anthrax scare.

Her comments came in an interview with WNBC.com's Brian Thompson at her Hunterdon County farm, where the former New Jersey governor also addressed criticism of the EPA's handling of health concerns at Ground Zero following the Sept. 11 attacks.

Her criticism of the Giuliani administration centered on the EPA's inspection of 30 Rockefeller Center after a letter containing anthrax arrived at the NBC building nearly six years ago.

While Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and then-New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik were taking command of the scene, Whitman said the city would not allow the EPA inspectors to be seen entering 30 Rock in their hazmat suits. Instead, the city wanted a tent to be set up where they first could change into the gear hidden from public view.

"There was concern by the city that EPA workers not be seen in their hazmat suits going in because [the city was] still recovering from 9/11. They didn't want this image of a city falling apart. I said, 'Well, that’s not acceptable, and this is the way we're going to have to do it.'"

The Giuliani Administration's Former Deputy Mayor, Joe Lhota, responded in a statement, “As the incident commander, F.D.N.Y.’s response was exemplary. They coordinated, conducted and affected a multi-agency response in a timely, safe and efficient fashion.”

Whitman also told Thompson that all did not go well in the days and weeks after Sept. 11 in terms of protecting workers' health.

"Some things didn't get done that should've gotten done," she said. "What we need to do is look back on that and say, 'OK, how can we make it better and make sure is never happens again.'"

Whitman said New York City had taken responsibility for the work at Ground Zero, and that she could only urge city officials -- on an almost daily basis -- to require workers to use respirators.

Thompson asked if Whitman believed the health of Ground Zero workers was a "ticking time bomb."

"I'm not a scientist, so it's hard to say definitively, but I do (believe that). We wouldn't have been saying that the workers should wear respirators, that there was a difference, that there was a problem with the air on the pile, if we didn't think there might be health consequences from it."

Whitman spoke with WNBC on the eve of a congressional showdown Monday, in which she will testify about the EPA's response, facing U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler -- who has already called her a liar.