New York was already counting on ten thousand claims in October 2001. Publicly, though, it kept assuring that the air near Ground Zero was safe

On Tuesday, New York released more than 170,000 pages of city documents on what City Hall knew about the air around Ground Zero after the attacks of September 11, 2001. A note on the apartment cleaning program states that the word "risk" would not be used in the letters, as it would defeat the purpose of building public trust. Mayor Zohran Mamdani said at a press conference that people got sick because the leaders they trusted lied to them. The Independent ↗

Slovak and Czech media picked up the story on Tuesday evening in wire-agency form: the city knew and lied. Pravda ↗ iROZHLAS ↗ What the files actually say is more specific. And for part of them, the main story is that the city denied for years that it even had them.

The three documents in question

The first is from October 2001 and is known as the Harding memo, named after the then deputy mayor Robert Harding. It is titled "Legislative Alternatives to Limit the City's Liability Relating to 9/11/01". It distinguishes approximately 35,000 people who could potentially sue, and an estimate that around ten thousand of them would actually file claims. It also lists possible grounds for lawsuits — faulty or missing respirators, inadequate cleaning, and recommendations to return to the district. It is an analysis of legal risk, not an admission of wrongdoing. Time ↗

This memo, however, is not a Tuesday discovery. The organization 9/11 Health Watch had already released it on February 5, 2026 — it did not find it in the city archive but in the papers of investigative journalist Wayne Barrett held at the University of Texas. 9/11 Health Watch ↗

The second document is a note dated May 16, 2002, with an unidentified author, concerning the apartment cleaning program. It states that "we would not use the word 'risk' in any letters as it would defeat the purpose of creating public confidence". So this is not a documented blanket ban on that word across all city communications, but specifically concerns letters related to this program. 6sqft ↗

The third is a memo from February 28, 2002. Ester Fuchs, Michael Bloomberg's special adviser for city governance and strategic planning, according to the newspaper amNewYork summarized for senior officials the objections of congressman Jerrold Nadler and added: "If Nadler's concerns are justified, we are not informing people of the real health risks in lower Manhattan." Bloomberg that same month publicly declared that all tests had shown acceptable levels. amNewYork ↗

The boxes the city said didn't exist

The organization 9/11 Health Watch requested the city records on September 8, 2023. The Office of Emergency Management denied the request in January 2024, and the Department of Environmental Protection two weeks later. It was not until September 16, 2025 that the city withdrew its motion to dismiss the lawsuit in court and admitted that it had, after all, found the documents. In November 2025, representatives of the organization examined 24 boxes at the Department of Environmental Protection's headquarters, and the city subsequently admitted it had at least 44 more. In total, that amounts to at least 68 boxes and, according to the organization, more than 340,000 pages. 9/11 Health Watch ↗

The city has signaled that disclosures will continue. City Hall reached a settlement in two lawsuits: it committed to agreeing on search terms with the plaintiffs for further documents, to meet with them every month for twelve months, and to cover reasonable costs. Settlement agreement ↗ It has earmarked roughly $34 million in the fiscal year 2027 budget to build and operate a portal. NYC Mayor's Office ↗

What the measurements show

Some of the measurements in the files come from later months, not from the first chaotic days. According to American media, a November 2001 audit found that benzene concentrations near the towers' foundations were still spiking to high levels, and at the building at 15 John Street, as late as July 2002 — ten months after the attack — asbestos above the acceptable threshold was measured in dust samples taken from surfaces. amNewYork ↗

The New York Fire Department released its own twenty-five-year tally on September 1. More than 10,500 of its members have a confirmed physical illness linked to their work at the site, nearly 4,500 have a confirmed mental health condition, and more than 4,250 have a cancer diagnosis recognized under the program. NYC Mayor's Office ↗ According to NY1, the department has buried more than six hundred of its own people over that time. NY1 ↗

The often-repeated claim that more people have died from the consequences of the attacks than the 2,977 who died that day should be treated with caution. Such a conclusion cannot be drawn simply from the number of deceased members of the federal World Trade Center Health Program, on which the claim usually relies: the program's methodological notes explicitly state that it does not track the cause of death of its members and that it may not be related to September 11. CDC, WTC Health Program ↗

The practical consequence of the disclosure lies elsewhere. Anyone who wants to be admitted to the federal health program or the compensation fund must prove they actually spent time in the contaminated zone. Mamdani's City Hall has therefore announced that it will assign staff from two city agencies to help people find such documentation. NYC Mayor's Office ↗

The dispute over who may stand at the memorial

The documents came out three days before the 25th anniversary of the attacks and a few days after Rudolph Giuliani declared on Newsmax that Mamdani should not attend Friday's memorial. "it offends me that he's coming," said the former mayor, also attacking Mamdani's faith. The Guardian ↗ Mamdani is the first Muslim to lead the city and was nine years old in September 2001.

Giuliani was mayor at the time of the attacks and repeatedly assured that the air was safe. According to The Independent, he responded to the disclosure with a post on X, which his account attributed to staffers: the EPA, it said, had stated the air was safe, made a mistake, and no one covered anything up. He himself has a lung condition linked to September 11. The Independent ↗ Congressman Nadler, who was already warning about the risks back then, speaks of a deliberate obscuring of the truth. eldiario.es ↗

Donald Trump is expected to be absent from Friday's memorial. He plans to go to the Pentagon instead. He will thus be the only living president not to appear at Ground Zero. The Independent ↗

The limits of this account

The released files are municipal, not federal. The best-known assurance that the air was safe and the water drinkable was issued on September 18, 2001 by EPA head Christine Todd Whitman. She did not apologize for it until 2016, saying she was only relaying the conclusions of the agency's own scientists and that the agency had done the best it could with what it knew at the time. Global News ↗ A report by the EPA Office of Inspector General dated August 21, 2003 stated that the agency did not have sufficient grounds for such a conclusion and that the White House Council on Environmental Quality had intervened in the wording of the statement. EPA Office of Inspector General ↗ Where federal responsibility ended and municipal responsibility began is not something the city files alone can settle.

The disclosure also has a political dimension: the new city administration is opening files on its predecessors' decisions three days before the anniversary, in the same week that it is being attacked precisely by the man whose administration those files most concern. But the proximity of the dates alone does not prove the timing is retaliatory. And the documents released so far are not enough to reach a definitive conclusion about the personal responsibility and intent of specific officials — the accusations of lying remain statements made by Mamdani and Nadler.

The investigation meant to answer the question of who knew what has, in fact, been under way since last summer: the city council ordered it by resolution on July 14, 2025. 9/11 Health Watch ↗

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