NYC Releases 170,000 Hidden 9/11 Air-Quality Pages

New York City released more than 170,000 pages of previously undisclosed post-9/11 air quality records on Tuesday, three days before the 25th anniversary of the attacks, and Mayor Zohran Mamdani said the files show city officials knew the air around Ground Zero was toxic while the public was told it was safe to breathe.

The documents were posted to a public portal the city built as part of a $34 million effort, according to CNN and the Washington Examiner.

They include air quality reports, contamination data gathered by local environmental agencies in the days after the towers fell, and correspondence among city officials — including exchanges about whether the city could be held legally liable for the public's exposure, CNN reported.

What the Records Show

Mamdani said asbestos was found "nearly everywhere" that inspectors tested near Ground Zero.

"These are documents that show what the city knew about toxic air around Ground Zero, when they knew it and how they acted to limit liability," he said at City Hall.

The release includes the long-sought "Harding memo," an October 2001 document written by city lawyers to Bob Harding, then deputy mayor for economic development under Mayor Rudy Giuliani. The New York Post, which first reported the memo in February, says it acknowledged the city could face tens of thousands of lawsuits from people exposed to the toxins. The Washington Examiner reported the memo warned of as many as 35,000 claims, in part because health advisories caused people "to return to the area too soon (causing toxic exposure or emotional harm)."

Other records come from the "68 boxes" of 9/11 health documents that city officials said were not located until 2025, despite years of public-records requests. The initial release also includes documents on 7 World Trade Center, The National Desk reported.

The word "misled" belongs to the records and the reporting on them: CNN said the files show officials knew conditions were unsafe "despite repeated assurances to the public," and Bloomberg reported the documents show officials weighing potential liability from toxic exposure while trying to reassure the public that Lower Manhattan was safe.