Just days before the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks, New York City has released a trove of previously undisclosed documents suggesting government efforts to downplay – or even mislead – residents about dangerous air quality following the attacks. At a news conference on Tuesday, Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced the publication of 170,000 pages concerning health issues following the collapse of two skyscrapers in the World Trade Center complex, known as the Twin Towers. Mamdani said the effort would deliver “accountability around city government’s response to September 11 that New Yorkers have been denied for years”.
His remarks reinforced long-running suspicions that leaders in the United States prematurely allowed workers and residents back into area around Lower Manhattan where the towers fell. And yet, we know that could not be further from what actually happened,” Mamdani said. The destruction sent a cloud of dust across Lower Manhattan.
Fires burned in the rubble for months. Thousands of police officers, firefighters and construction workers spent time working in the soot, often without proper protection. Within weeks of the collapse, employees and residents were also allowed to return to nearby buildings, including One Liberty Plaza, which had sustained damage during the attacks.
But many of those who worked or lived around the site, known as “Ground Zero”, have seen their health decline in the years since. Some developed respiratory or digestive-system ailments that appeared almost immediately. Others have fallen victim to illnesses that developed over time, including cancer.
Tuesday’s release includes a document sent in October 2001 to then-Deputy Mayor Robert Harding, detailing the city’s potential legal exposure after the 9/11 attacks. The so-called Harding Memo shows officials anticipated as many as 10,000 lawsuits against the city over issues such as “toxic exposure” due to the poor air quality and “faulty” safety equipment. The Harding Memo also outlined means through which the city could “limit” its liability, including by appealing to Congress to create a fund for victims and requesting indemnification from the US government.
Another memo, released in February 2002, detailed how officials worried that criticism from US Representative Jerry Nadler could open the city up to “major public relations problems” and a “barrage of lawsuits”. Ester Fuchs, a former special adviser to then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani, pointed to statements from Nadler accusing the government of quashing documents that “showed higher than acceptable levels of asbestos” in the area around the attack. Fuchs went on to acknowledge that “there is at least a low level of asbestos in the dust in many buildings in lower Manhattan”.
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