Nearly 25 years after the September 11 attacks, newly released records are raising troubling questions about what New York City officials knew about toxic air around Ground Zero — and what they told the public.
New York City has released more than 170,000 pages of previously undisclosed documents detailing air-quality testing, contamination and the government’s response following the attacks. The records include reports showing asbestos and other contaminants in Lower Manhattan, while internal documents reveal officials were concerned about exposure and potential liability.
Mayor Mamdani announced the release at a news conference Tuesday.
“As the years pass and the human toll grows, we reckon with the cost of September 11th whenever another New Yorker is stolen from us too soon,” Mamdani said. “Now, close to 25 years later, more people have died from 9/11-related illnesses than were killed on the day itself.”
That evidence stands in stark contrast to repeated public assurances in the weeks and months after 9/11 that the air was safe to breathe. Former EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman was among those who reassured the public; she later acknowledged that those statements were wrong.
Some records show asbestos contamination persisted well into 2002, including at locations away from the World Trade Center site. Other documents point to elevated levels of benzene and asbestos in environmental testing.
The records also raise questions about transparency. Sixty-eight boxes of documents were reportedly located only in 2025, after years of requests for records concerning 9/11 air quality. The release followed legal action by the advocacy group 9/11 Health Watch.
For thousands of first responders, workers and residents who later developed respiratory illnesses and cancers, the disclosures may provide new evidence of what officials knew — and when they knew it. The release is also a painful reminder that the consequences of 9/11 did not end when the towers fell.
