Watchdog Thanks Mamdani for Release of 9/11 Air Quality Files Hidden From Public for Years

A watchdog group representing 9/11 first responders and survivors applauded New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday as his administration released a trove of long-buried files that shed new light on how New Yorkers were misled about air quality and health risks in the wake of the terrorist attack.

“I want to thank Mayor Mamdani for being the mayor, after 25 years, who finally begins to answer the question, ‘What did the city know about the dangers from the toxic cloud at ground zero, and when did it know it?’” said Benjamin Chevat, a longtime advocate for programs to help survivors and first responders, who leads the group 9/11 Health Watch.

Days before the 25th anniversary of the attack that took nearly 3,000 lives, Mamdani's office is releasing around 170,000 pages of records that were stored in a city office and kept from public view for more than two decades. The New York Times, which reviewed the documents prior to their release, said they contain "air quality reports, contamination records and correspondence among city officials."

There is no definitive total of the number of people who have died as a result of health complications caused by the attack, but as Mamdani noted during a press conference on Tuesday, it has almost surely far surpassed the number killed in the attack itself.

"The devastating truth is that the suffering did not end once the smoke cleared and the dust settled," Mamdani said. "For so many New Yorkers who lived, or worked, or studied near ground zero, and for the thousands of others who worked on the pile, recovering those we'd lost and clearing the rubble, that was only the beginning of years of hardship and illness."

These survivors, he said, were forced to remember September 11, not just on its yearly anniversary, but "each time they take a struggling breath, each time they have to swallow a pill, each time another chemo dose is administered."

The documents released by Mamdani's office were uncovered following a yearslong fight between 9/11 Health Watch and New York City's Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), which initially claimed the files had gone missing.

Following pressure from the City Council and a lawsuit from 9/11 Health Watch, DEP later revealed that the files had been stored in 68 highly organized boxes in the agency's possession, which fueled speculation about a cover-up by the city and led a New York City judge to rule that the city's denial was "arbitrary and capricious."

"For 25 years," Chevat said, "four different mayoral administrations kept from the public, the US Congress, and the City Council documents showing what the city actually knew about the danger of the toxic chemicals in Lower Manhattan and Western Brooklyn after the World Trade Center collapse, even as city officials continued messaging to the public that the air was 'safe and acceptable.'"

The first tranche, released on an online portal Tuesday, shows that while city and federal officials assured Americans that the air was safe to breathe, asbestos and other toxic chemicals were being detected at and around Ground Zero until at least July 2002, more than 10 months after the attacks. It also shows that analyses by the Environmental Protection Agency found carcinogens around lower Manhattan, in some cases above acceptable limits.

Also released was an October 2001 memo sent to former Mayor Rudy Giuliani's deputy mayor, Robert Harding, showing that the then-mayor's administration expected as many as 10,000 claims from plaintiffs harmed, including by toxic exposure, after public health advisories assured them it was safe to return to Lower Manhattan, and from first responders who had inadequate safety equipment.

The records also point to apparent efforts by the city to downplay the substandard air quality in order to ease the public’s fears about returning to business as usual following the attacks.

Documents show that even as test results revealed worrying levels of asbestos, city officials sought to massage those findings, avoiding the word "risk" in public advisories. Another document acknowledged that the city may have given residents a dangerous recommendation when it advised them to use wet mops and rags to clean up asbestos dust in their homes, a task that typically requires licensed crews.

The release of the files gives credence to the concerns raised at the time by Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), whose district included ground zero.

“They knew about the air quality, and they essentially did nothing about it,” Nadler said of the Giuliani and Bloomberg administrations in an interview with the Times last week. "I suspect that all they cared about was getting Wall Street reopened, and they didn’t give a damn about the health of the people down there.”

Mamdani's release of the files comes as his opponents launch attacks against his Muslim identity and imply he bears sympathy with the al Qaeda jihadists who carried out the 9/11 attacks.

Over the weekend, Giuliani said in an appearance on the right-wing cable channel Newsmax that Mamdani should be banned from participating in the ground zero commemoration because the attack was carried out "in the name of the Muslim religion” and that the perpetrators "weren’t hiding it like Mamdani is trying to hide it.”

Mamdani has responded that he would attend multiple 9/11 remembrance events on Friday to support first responders and families who lost loved ones.

“I’m proud to be the mayor of this city. I love this city. I love this country,” he said. “What I want this week to be a focus on is the families whose loved ones were stolen from them 25 years ago in the horrific act of terror of September 11, and a focus also on the first responders who did everything they could.”

Mamdani said on Tuesday that his release of the files was part of an effort to do right by New Yorkers harmed by the shortcomings of the city's response to the attacks.

"It would be one thing if the government had stood alongside survivors and provided them with everything they needed at every step of the way. And yet, we know that could not be further from what actually happened," Mamdani said. "People got sick because the leaders they trusted lied and told them they were safe to breathe in toxic air."

"Administration after administration has ignored those calling for answers and clarity, instead choosing to bury them in legal arguments and in red tape," he continued. "We will do no such thing as we mark 25 years."