What we know about NYC’s newly released 9/11 records revealing officials misled public about air safety

By Emma Tucker, Gloria Pazmino, CNN

(CNN) — New York City released over 170,000 pages of documents revealing officials repeatedly misled residents about the toxic air quality levels after the September 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center, just days before the city marks its 25th anniversary.

The disclosure reveals the scale of lives lost and harms for those whose health was affected in the years since the tragedy. It’s also expected to give the public a better understanding of how the city responded following the collapse of the towers as they raced to restabilize and reopen Lower Manhattan.

Those living near Ground Zero were repeatedly reassured by officials that the air was safe, despite internal data and residents’ experiences that contradicted their claims, according to the documents.

The documents might only contain a fraction of the air quality reports taken at Ground Zero, but they also include crucial internal memos.

In some of them, officials raised alarms regarding environmental testing between October and November 2001, which regularly detected elevated levels of toxins, including asbestos and hard-to-detect, dangerous chemicals.

It details failures to protect the health of first responders, concealing asbestos data and other testing, along with officials’ contradicting statements to the public regarding health risks.

“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,” said Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday at a news conference announcing the documents’ release.

Nearly 3,000 people were killed on 9/11, but thousands more – including first responders who spent months working at the site – have since died from 9/11-related cancers and other illnesses, according to the 9/11 Memorial.

A searchable portal will provide access to the documents, and the city is expected to add more material on a rolling basis in the coming months, officials said Tuesday. Every document published in the portal will be available for view and download at no cost.

Why release the records now?

The documents were among 68 boxes stored in a city government office that were discovered last year and are being released ahead of Friday’s 25th anniversary of the attacks, according to city officials.

For years, 9/11 advocates, survivors and first responders including many who were sickened from exposure to toxins in the air following the attacks, have called for more transparency and demanded the release of the documents.

Their release this week resolves a lawsuit brought by the advocacy group 9/11 Health Watch, which had sued the city for their release to bring more federal assistance and help kick-start additional research on health outcomes, according to executive director Ben Chevat.

“Mr. Mayor, I want to thank you for being the mayor who, after 25 years, 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?” Chevat said at Tuesday’s news conference, addressing Mamdani.

What alleged lies did officials make?

When asked whether the yearslong delay in releasing the documents was a “cover-up,” Mamdani said, “This was multiple mayoral administrations refusing to release documents that New Yorkers were owed.”

The documents cite evidence that then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and other city officials repeatedly reassured residents and first responders that the air was safe, despite contradictions from their own internal data.

News reports from February 2002 show former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who succeeded Giuliani, said “every test that has been done says the air quality was in acceptable limits. I think some people are just never going to believe that.”

A spokesperson for Bloomberg declined to comment Tuesday.

The documents similarly cite public statements from Giuliani saying the air was safe and encouraging people to return to normal life.

In one example, an internal memo written by Associate Health Commissioner Kelly McKinney on October 6, 2001, warning that “air quality [for asbestos] at those locations is not yet suitable for reoccupancy,” came the same day that Giuliani publicly declared the air to be safe, the documents say.

Both independent scientists and environmental groups later discounted Giuliani’s claims.

The documents also say government officials misled the public by withholding information about dangerous levels of asbestos in the air, covering up major lead contamination at the Department of Transportation headquarters building and discouraging the use of respirators among first responders.

There was a detrimental impact on residents who “returned to their ash-filled apartments because they were ‘lulled by reassuring statements’” from Giuliani and EPA Administrator Christie Whitman, according to the records.

Many of those residents and workers, the documents say, developed “severe, persistent health problems,” including chronic nosebleeds, skin rashes, headaches, newly onset asthma and cough due to inhaling “the highly alkaline, caustic dust.”

Who sounded the alarm about air quality issues?

Some government leaders shared concerns about the air quality after the tragedy, including US Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York.

Outlined in a white paper, Nadler’s memo sent to Bloomberg’s office in February 2002 detailed his concerns and belief that the Environmental Protection Agency had “neglected its responsibility for monitoring indoor air quality around Ground Zero.”

Nadler told the mayor’s office that shortly after the attacks, Whitman misled the public by declaring that the air was “safe to breathe,” but that the statement was made before any government test of indoor air quality had been conducted, the documents show.

He also wrote to the mayor’s office about findings by University of California, Davis, scientists which showed the air contained “startling concentrations” of lung-penetrating, ultra-fine particulate matter that could “lodge deep in the lungs.”

Whitman said in a statement Tuesday that her comments about the Ground Zero site’s air quality “were based entirely on the analysis done by EPA scientists.”

“Within days, the EPA had put up a website with all the data available, which they frequently updated so that it was all public — the goal was as much transparency as possible. Everyone at the EPA did the best they could with the information, tools, and knowledge available at the time,” she said in the statement.

Whitman said EPA officials repeatedly distinguished between conditions at the site and the air elsewhere in the city and warned of the risks to workers at Ground Zero. She added that the EPA did not control the worksite — which she said New York City oversaw — and had no authority to regulate indoor air quality.

Some of the most pointed memos at the time came from EPA Chemist Cate Jenkins, who later became a whistleblower claiming the agency lied about air safety and downplayed the dangers of the dust. She was fired by the EPA after publicly speaking out, but later rehired by the agency.

In one of her memos to officials of the city’s waste identification branch, dated December 3, 2001, Jenkins pointed out unsafe cleanup guidelines by the city, testing methods that were called “irrelevant,” and public claims from public officials about air quality that contradicted scientific evidence.

What do the records say about 9/11-related illnesses?

The physical and mental health toll of the tragedy continues to “deeply impact tens of thousands of individuals” across the country, which has manifested for many as illnesses from exposure to the toxic dust that covered the city, according to the 9/11 Memorial.

At least 140,000 people from all 50 states have enrolled in the World Trade Center Health Program, and 49,000 have been diagnosed with certified WTC-related cancers, according to the 9/11 Memorial.

More people are eligible for assistance than are currently enrolled, including residents who lived near the site, but have not received outreach, and those who live outside of New York, Mamdani said Tuesday.

Cancer wasn’t covered when Congress created the health program in 2011. Coverage was added in 2012 — only after advocates fought for its inclusion, and a study showed elevated cancer rates among New York firefighters who offered relief at Ground Zero.

Residents of Chinatown, located in the Ground Zero perimeter, faced the most challenges coping with the tragedy, the documents said. They reported that their apartments were filled with dust that later led to illnesses and respiratory problems.

The documents also cited EPA failures to hire outreach workers who spoke Asian languages, leaving many people in Chinatown with respiratory issues from the dust without any knowledge of the agency or its indoor cleanup program.

Chinese American children who were receiving care in Chinatown showed a “substantial increase in the severity of asthma symptoms,” according to one study cited in the documents.

The community received disproportionate federal grants to rebuild, as many were excluded from city and state grant programs due to Chinatown being located outside of the scope to receive that funding, the report said.

“People got sick because the leaders they trusted lied and told them they were safe to breathe in toxic air,” Mamdani said.

Will there be legal repercussions?

At the news conference, Corporation Council Steve Banks – who represents the city – was asked whether city leaders are concerned the released documents could open the door to more legal action against them.

“If you’re in City Hall and afraid of taking action because somebody is going to bring a lawsuit, you’re probably not going to take the action that needs to be taken,” Banks responded.

In the coming months, the city will provide updates to the court as part of their commitments detailed in the settlement, said Banks.

One of the crucial documents included in Tuesday’s release was what became known as the “Harding Memo,” which was sent to then-Deputy Mayor Robert Harding.

The memo cited a Law Department estimate of about 35,000 potential plaintiffs — roughly 10,000 of whom were expected to file claims — as a result of the September 11 attacks and outlined legislative options to limit the city’s legal liability.

“A major concern is that if these cases make it to court, the judges and juries will be biased in favor of plaintiffs (even though the City seems to have a strong defense) and therefore, award substantial damages to compensate individuals for their loss,” the memo states.

Meanwhile, the two lawsuits filed by 9/11 Health Watch were settled with the release of the new portal, Mamdani said, ending “what has been a multi-year legal battle and restrictions on New Yorkers’ ability to access information that can shed valuable insight on air quality and health concerns.”

Will more documents be released?

The first release of documents into the portal is “only the beginning,” said Banks. There will be more documents released over the course of the next year, he added.

As more documents roll out, the city will continue to provide public updates, he said.

Releasing the documents was “doing the right thing,” Mamdani said.

“I also think beyond making it easier for New Yorkers to make clear their eligibility for this fund, it is also important that those who faced such sustained pushback for years finally be told by the City of New York: ‘You were right. You were right to push. You were right to demand,’ and that the city is finally catching up,” he said.

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CNN’s Katherine Koretski contributed to this report.