After more than two decades of unanswered questions about the air New Yorkers breathed after 9/11, New York City is opening a massive archive of records about ground zero, toxic dust, and the government's public messaging.
Advocates for first responders and survivors say the release could clarify what officials knew about the health dangers and when they knew it.
Here's what to know
For years, those records remained hidden from public view. Mayor Zohran Mamdani's administration is disclosing about 170,000 pages, and as Common Dreams reported, The New York Times, which reviewed them before publication, said they contain "air quality reports, contamination records, and correspondence among city officials."
Among those welcoming the release is Benjamin Chevat, the leader of 9/11 Health Watch and a longtime advocate for programs supporting first responders and survivors.
"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?'" he told Common Dreams.
The first batch of records indicates that asbestos and other toxic chemicals continued to turn up at and near ground zero through at least July 2002, over 10 months after the attacks. The files also show that Environmental Protection Agency analyses detected carcinogens around Lower Manhattan, sometimes above acceptable limits.
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Another document, an October 2001 memo sent to former Mayor Rudy Giuliani's deputy mayor, Robert Harding, said the city expected up to 10,000 claims from people who were told it was safe to return to Lower Manhattan and from first responders who lacked adequate safety equipment.
More background
Mamdani said the number of people who have died from 9/11-related health complications has likely exceeded the number killed in the terrorist attack itself.
"The devastating truth is that the suffering did not end once the smoke cleared and the dust settled," he said, per Common Dreams. "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."
The files include evidence that officials downplayed the danger. Documents released by Mamdani's office and described by the Times show city officials avoided the word "risk" in public advisories despite testing that showed dangerous asbestos levels.
Another document acknowledged that residents may have been given risky cleanup advice when they were told to use wet mops and rags on asbestos in their homes — a job that should be done by professionals.
What's being done?
The records surfaced only after years of pressure from 9/11 Health Watch, the City Council, and a lawsuit. The city's Department of Environmental Protection initially said the files were missing but later disclosed that they had been stored in 68 highly organized boxes.
That reversal fueled concerns about a cover-up and led a judge to rule that the city's denial was "arbitrary and capricious." U.S. Rep. Jerry Nadler, whose district includes ground zero, told the Times, "They knew about the air quality, and they essentially did nothing about it."
As Mamdani said, "People got sick because the leaders they trusted lied and told them they were safe to breathe in toxic air."
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