Documents show: Air quality in Lower Manhattan after 9/11 was toxic

After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the air quality in Lower Manhattan was far worse than authorities portrayed at the time. Ten months after the destruction of the World Trade Center by the terrorist organization al-Qaeda, asbestos continued to be detected in the air, according to files from various government agencies that New York published on an online portal ahead of the 25th anniversary of the attacks on Tuesday. The fibrous silicate minerals previously used in construction can lead to scarring of the lungs and cancer of the lungs or the peritoneum and pleura.

"The poison was in the air, on the floor, in window frames and air conditioning units. It was on your pets and on your clothes, where it stayed for months. Everyone knew it. Now it's confirmed that the city knew it too," said presenter and satirist Jon Stewart at a press conference with New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Stewart accused the city of deliberately exposing its residents to danger in order to immediately return to “business as usual” after the attacks in the financial district in Lower Manhattan.

The New York firefighters union had already called for the disclosure of air quality documents following the destruction of the World Trade Center last summer. At that time it was revealed that the city kept 68 boxes, each containing around 5,000 files on “Ground Zero poison reports”.

In addition to the documents for the 68 boxes, the documents published online on Tuesday also include files from Building 7 World Trade Center, which was the headquarters of the fire and emergency services operations center until the terrorist attacks. In addition, the “Harding Memorandum” was released. As the message to Robert Harding shows, during "9/11" the deputy of then New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, the authorities were already thinking about a wave of complaints about air quality. The city council announced last year that it would examine all documents on possible illnesses by the summer of 2027.

According to the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, over the past 25 years, nearly 50,000 New York City responders and residents have been diagnosed with cancers related to the destruction of the World Trade Center. In the months after “9/11,” more than 350 chemical agents were detected in dust and debris.

On September 17, 2001, less than a week after the terrorist attacks, then-Mayor Giuliani proudly announced that tens of thousands of people had returned to work at banks and businesses in Lower Manhattan. “I am pleased to be able to assure the people of New York that the air is safe to breathe,” said Christine Todd Whitman, then head of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).