NYC Releases 2001 Documents Showing Officials Privately Worried About Air Quality Before Telling Public It Was Safe

Since the World Trade Center Health Program's last full accounting in March 2025 put enrolled deaths at 8,215, the toll has kept rising. Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), speaking at a Monmouth County memorial ceremony on September 10, 2026, put the current figure at more than 9,000 deaths directly linked to 9/11 illnesses, with over 96,000 people diagnosed with physical or mental health conditions tied to the attacks. The 25th anniversary of the attacks falls Friday, September 11, 2026.

New York City's Council, acting under authorization from Mayor Zohran Mamdani, released thousands of internal documents on Tuesday, September 8, related to the city's handling of air quality in Lower Manhattan after the towers fell, according to the Epoch Times.

One memo, sent in October 2001 by a lobbyist working with the mayor's office to the deputy mayor, estimated the city faced roughly 35,000 potential plaintiffs from the attacks, with about 10,000 expected to actually file claims. The memo argued the federal government, through FEMA, should be paying for indoor cleanup of contaminated buildings.

The documents show city officials had directed residents to clean their apartments and offices with mops and rags, even though asbestos had already turned up in dust samples from the area by late 2001, and only licensed asbestos abatement crews were supposed to handle that kind of cleanup, the Epoch Times reported.

The memo itself raised the alarm internally: "If Nadler's concerns are justified, we are not informing people of the real health risks in lower Manhattan, the city may face major public relations problems and is leaving itself open to a barrage of lawsuits." It recommended the city "discontinue telling people to clean their apartments with wet mops and rags."

Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), who represented the district around Ground Zero at the time, said in a statement Tuesday that he and colleagues warned officials in real time about the health risks. "Our warnings were not heeded, and now we and the public know that City Hall, led by former Mayor Giuliani, predicted that thousands of responders and community members would face devastating long-term health impacts from these toxins," Nadler said.

Mamdani was more direct at a City Hall briefing, saying "people got sick because the leaders they trusted lied and told them they were safe to breathe in toxic air." That's Mamdani's characterization of what happened, not a finding from any court or investigation. Rudy Giuliani, who was mayor during the response, did not respond to a request for comment, according to the Epoch Times.

The fall of 2001 was chaotic. Information about long-term toxicology of pulverized concrete, glass fiber, and asbestos was still being pieced together in real time, and officials were also under enormous pressure to reopen Wall Street and get Lower Manhattan functioning again. A memo flagging legal exposure and PR risk shows officials were aware of a problem, but it doesn't by itself prove intentional deception as opposed to poor judgment under pressure, and no criminal charge, civil finding, or investigation has been announced against Giuliani or his administration over these specific documents.

Fox News Digital spoke with Mordechai Shedrowitzky, a volunteer EMT who responded to Ground Zero on the night of September 11, 2001, driving in from Brooklyn. He described entering the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel in total darkness with "a tremendous amount of swirling debris" and later staging at South Street Seaport, where he says his ambulance engine sputtered from the dust in the air.

Shedrowitzky had pre-existing asthma that worsened for years after 2001, eventually requiring oral steroids, frequent hospitalizations, and ultimately major surgery. "I thought it was over" once he left the scene that night, he told Fox News Digital. It wasn't.

The CDC's World Trade Center Health Program tracks all-cause deaths among enrollees, not specifically deaths caused by 9/11 exposure, so the true number tied directly to Ground Zero toxins is inherently harder to pin down than the raw death count suggests. This is one reason the death toll figures cited by Rep. Smith, the CDC, and advocacy groups can vary depending on what's being counted.

No new lawsuits or federal investigation have been announced in response to Tuesday's document release. The September 11th Victim Compensation Fund remains the primary avenue for responders and survivors seeking compensation for 9/11-linked illness and death, a fund created in the direct aftermath of the attacks and still processing claims 25 years later.