NYC releases 170,000 pages of previously undisclosed 9/11 air quality records

Sep 8, 2026

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has released over 170,000 pages of previously secret 9/11 records, settling a lawsuit by 9/11 Health Watch. The documents, including the 2001 'Harding Memo,' reveal that administrations under Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg knew of severe toxic air risks and anticipated up to 35,000 lawsuits, even as they publicly assured residents the air was safe. The health crisis has since claimed over 9,000 lives, surpassing the casualties of the attacks themselves.

Document release portal

▪The document release resolves a multi-year legal battle and settles two lawsuits brought against New York City by the advocacy group 9/11 Health Watch
▪The 170,000 pages of 9/11 records were made publicly available in a free, searchable online portal funded by a $34 million allocation in the city's upcoming fiscal year budget
▪New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced the release of over 170,000 pages of previously undisclosed municipal records regarding Ground Zero air quality and health concerns
▪The newly released documents were discovered last year stored in 68 boxes inside a New York City government office

Ground Zero air quality deception

▪In February 2002, then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg publicly defended air quality test results as acceptable, stating that 'some people are just never going to want to believe that.'
▪A February 2002 memo compiled by Bloomberg adviser Ester Fuchs warned that if concerns raised by Representative Jerry Nadler were justified, the city was failing to inform people of real health risks
▪Then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani's administration publicly declared the air safe on October 6, 2001, the same day Associate Health Commissioner Kelly McKinney warned in an internal memo that air quality was not suitable for reoccupancy
▪The newly released documents show that New York City officials under then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani publicly assured residents the air was safe while internally acknowledging potential toxic exposure risks
▪An October 2001 internal document known as the 'Harding Memo' warned then-Deputy Mayor Robert Harding that New York City faced up to 35,000 potential legal claims over toxic exposure

Post-9/11 health crisis toll

▪At least 140,000 people from all 50 states have enrolled in the federal World Trade Center Health Program
▪According to the World Trade Center Health Program, more than 9,000 people have died from 9/11-related illnesses, exceeding the nearly 3,000 people killed on the day of the attacks
▪At least 49,000 people have been diagnosed with cancers certified as related to the World Trade Center attacks and their aftermath, according to the 9/11 Memorial

Internal asbestos findings

▪A November 2011 audit included in the documents showed that levels of the carcinogen benzene were still spiking in the air around the World Trade Center footprints
▪Environmental reports in the documents show that asbestos levels in dust samples throughout lower Manhattan exceeded hazardous limits in the days immediately following September 11, 2001
▪The newly released records show that asbestos was found nearly everywhere that New York City inspectors tested in the vicinity of Ground Zero

Mamdani administration accountability

▪A spokesperson for former Mayor Rudy Giuliani's staff posted on X that the Environmental Protection Agency made a mistake regarding air safety and asserted that no one covered it up
▪Mayor Zohran Mamdani stated that four previous mayoral administrations chose to bury the 9/11 records in legal arguments and red tape rather than release them to the public
▪New York City Corporation Counsel Steve Banks stated that the city's Department of Investigation is investigating what officials knew about air quality problems and why information was withheld

Debatable claims

▪New York City should be held legally liable for Ground Zero toxic exposure
▪The Giuliani administration intentionally misled the public about Ground Zero air safety