Three days prior to the 25th anniversary of 9/11, New York Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani’s administration released roughly 170,000 pages of city records about the government’s response to the aftermath that resulted in poor air quality from the collapse of the World Trade Center buildings.
Included in the records is the “Harding Memo,” the so-called “68 boxes” of documents that surfaced in 2025, after previously not being made available or public, despite Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests to New York City and the city’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), which previously denied the existence of any such September 11-related records.
Mayor Mamdani’s FY27 budget includes $34 million to create and maintain the NYC 9/11 Document Portal. “The very least our city owes the families, survivors and first responders whose lives were forever changed by the September 11th attacks is transparency and accountability.
That is why I am proud that our administration has launched the City’s first public records portal dedicated to the environmental and health impacts of 9/11 and reached a settlement in these lawsuits,” said Mayor Mamdani in a press statement.
“For too long, New Yorkers have had to fight for access to records that should have been available to them in the first place. This portal is part of our administration’s enduring commitment to honor those we lost, care for those living with lasting health consequences and give thousands of New Yorkers the answer they’ve been asking for,” he said.
The move comes after years of pressure from first responders, families of victims, and elected officials for transparency about what city leaders knew about health risks from the toxic dust and debris, and it also resolves a long-running legal fight with the group 9/11 Health Watch over access to these records.
The portal launched September 8, and the city says it will keep adding records to it over the next year as the Law Department finishes reviewing them.
Mayor Mamdani’s administration also plans to help residents connect with federal health benefits under the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, passed in 2020. It provides medical monitoring, treatment, and financial compensation to first responders, recovery workers and survivors of 9/11.
“My initial thoughts are that he has pure intentions to be the mayor for all of New York City, but the toxic smoke is not only in what was once the (Twin) Towers. The toxic smoke is in the anti-Islamic sentiment that is in the city,” stated Nation of Islam Student Eastern Regional Minister Arthur Muhammad of Mosque No. 7 in New York.
“So, there is a physical toxic smoke and a figurative toxic smoke, and therefore the pushback that he’s getting from former mayors Giuliani and Bloomberg, the pushback that he’s getting from some of the families who have their own ‘isms’ about Muslims,
Or even if they believe that Muslims had something to do with the attack, that somehow Mayor Mamdani’s presence would distract from the solemnness of the occasion,” he argued.
Within weeks of the September 11, 2001, attacks in New York, there was reportedly information about asbestos and poor air quality, which was known or at least available through several NYC mayoral administrations: Rudolph Giuliani, Michael Bloomberg, Bill de Blasio, and Eric Adams. But it was Mayor Mamdani who released the data.
Yet, ironically, as the 25th anniversary approached, it is Mayor Mamdani, not the officials whose administrations reportedly withheld those records for decades, who faced calls to stay away from the memorial ceremony.
9/11 Health Watch Executive Director Benjamin Chevat credited Mayor Mamdani as the first mayor in 25 years to begin answering what the city knew about Ground Zero’s toxic cloud—and when.
He also praised Corporation Counsel Steve Banks for pushing the Law Department to settle 9/11 Health Watch’s lawsuit and comply with state public records law, resulting in the records release on 9/11 air quality, risk assessments, and public messaging.
According to reporting by U.S. News and World Report, “Representatives for more than 9,000 people who died after 9/11 have filed claims with the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, and more than 6,000 of those have received compensation so far.” The collapse of the Twin Towers created toxic dust clouds containing a mix of asbestos, metals, concrete, glass and burned jet fuel.
While first responders and rescue workers at Ground Zero experienced the most intense exposure, the hazardous plumes extended across lower Manhattan and into Brooklyn, infiltrating offices, schools and apartment buildings, the outlet reported.
“For 25 years, four different Mayoral administrations kept from the public, the U.S. Congress, and the City Council documents showing what the City actually knew about the danger of the toxic chemicals in Lower Manhattan and Western Brooklyn after the World Trade Center collapse, even as City officials continued messaging to the public that the air was ‘safe and acceptable,’” said Mr. Chevat in a Sep. 9 press statement.
According to the local ABC news affiliate, ABC7NY, “City officials said records already reviewed by the Mamdani administration show government leaders understood the dangers posed by burning toxins at Ground Zero. Documents from 2001 indicate officials worried about potential lawsuits related to chemical exposure, even as the city continued to tell the public conditions were safe.”
Corporation Counsel Steven Banks said the portal was a direct response to years of advocates asking for access, and U.S. Congressman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) noted that City Hall had internally predicted responders and nearby residents would face serious long-term health consequences.
“Giuliani’s intentional obfuscation of the truth is a slap in the face to the heroes and community members who were exposed at Ground Zero and in schools, offices, and homes throughout the surrounding area.
By hiding the truth, he prolonged our fight in Congress for funding to take care of victims’ health needs, and cost the lives of other victims through unnecessary delays in healthcare interventions,” said Rep. Nadler.
“While the damage to victims’ health cannot be erased, I am grateful to the Mamdani administration for releasing these files so victims and their loved ones can have the transparency they deserve and officials who misled the public can be held accountable,” he added.
New names continue to be added to the memorial every year, said Student Minister Muhammad, because responders and others have developed cancers, including myelomas, years after the attacks. In addition, some people who responded have died from unknown or untraceable cancer, he said.
On Sept. 2, FDNY added the names of 36 members who died of illnesses related to their work in the rescue and recovery efforts at the World Trade Center to the FDNY World Trade Center Memorial Wall.
“There’ll be some people that didn’t think that they were affected, and that will now begin to be more concerned. So, we’ll definitely see more talk and chatter about that,” said Student Min. Muhammad.
“I don’t know if it’s going to open up more lawsuits, but it definitely is going to enlighten people as to the toxic nature that still exists, not only that existed, but that still exists in that area,” he said.
At the news conference announcing the release of the documents, Mayor Mamdani agreed that many people exposed to Ground Zero dust and debris were misled about the risks they faced.
“The leaders they trusted lied and told them they were safe to breathe in toxic air,” Mayor Mamdani said.
To access the 9/11 NYC Document Portal, visit: sept11documents.cityofnewyork.us
—Charlene Muhammad, National Correspondent
