{"id":124299,"date":"2026-02-05T20:38:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T20:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/124299\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T20:38:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T20:38:08","slug":"release-every-single-nyc-document-on-9-11-toxins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/124299\/","title":{"rendered":"Release ‘every single’ NYC document on 9\/11 toxins"},"content":{"rendered":"

City Council Speaker Julie Menin on Thursday demanded that \u201cevery single file the city has\u201d regarding toxins swirling above Ground Zero following 9\/11 be made public following a bombshell discovery of an internal city memo that proved the city feared the dangers just weeks after the terror attacks.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cMy mother died from a 9\/11 related cancer,\u201d said Menin (D-Manhattan), who worked and lived just blocks from the World Trade Center in 2001. \u201c(After the attacks) the city told us to put wet cloths on our windows. They echoed what Christie Todd Whitman and others said that the air was safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"InIn this Jan. 8, 2001 file photo, a rescue worker wearing a dust mask, peers through a cloud of dust created by an excavator at the World Trade Center site in New York. (AP Photo\/Mark Lennihan, File)<\/p>\n

The discovery of the long-sought Harding memo, made public Wednesday, proves that the city, just weeks after 9\/11, were bracing for potential lawsuits over \u201chealth advisories (that) caused individuals to return to the area too soon (causing toxic exposure or emotional harm).\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there ever was a smoking gun, this is a smoking gun,\u201d Menin said about the memo at a press conference outside City Hall with Councilwoman Gale Brewer<\/a> (D-Manhattan), FDNY union officials and attorneys for 9\/11 survivors.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really shameful that this city hid this information and refused to disclose it. It\u2019s unconscionable that the city hasn\u2019t taken responsibility for basically lying to not only our first responders, but the whole downtown community.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NewNew York City Council Speaker Julie Menin and Council member Gale Brewer appear at a press conference demanding transparency on post-9\/11 air quality knowledge by New York City on Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026, outside City Hall. (Emil Cohen \/ NYC Council Media Unit)<\/p>\n

More than 140,000 first responders and survivors are now enrolled in the U.S. Center for Disease Control\u2019s\u00a0WTC Health Program,\u00a0which provides 9\/11-related health care benefits. Out of that number, about 81,000 have a certified condition linked to the toxins that hung above Ground Zero.<\/p>\n

On the day of the terror attacks, 343 FDNY members died in the collapse of the twin towers. Since then, an additional 424 members have died of 9\/11-related illnesses.<\/p>\n

Survivor advocates and union officials are calling on Mamdani to release all the documents, something his predecessors dating back to Giuliani has failed to do, claiming that releasing the information could lead to lawsuits.<\/p>\n

They also want Mamdani to fully fund the $3 million Department of Investigation probe<\/a> into what and when the city knew about the dangers of the toxins.<\/p>\n

\"MayorMayor Zohran Mamdani. (Barry Williams \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

The unearthed memo won\u2019t likely cause a flurry of lawsuits since first responders and survivors who are receiving help from the WTC Health Program and the 9\/11 Victim Compensation fund have already signed waivers agreeing not to sue over their illnesses. More than 100,000 people have signed these waivers, officials said.<\/p>\n

But the air quality studies conducted by the city more than 20 years ago could be imperative to learning more about the cancers that survivors are facing, advocates said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey lied to limit their liability and hid the records,\u201d Andrew Ansbro, the president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association said about prior administrations. \u201cThey made a conscious choice to keep these cancers hidden instead of studying them. And now 25 years of mayoral sins are dropping on the Mayor\u2019s lap.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re saying to (Mamdani), do not make it your sin,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"NewNew York City Council Speaker Julie Menin and Council member Gale Brewer appear at a press conference demanding transparency on post-9\/11 air quality knowledge by New York City on Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026, outside City Hall. (Emil Cohen \/ NYC Council Media Unit)<\/p>\n

An email to City Hall regarding these requests were not immediately returned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"City Council Speaker Julie Menin on Thursday demanded that \u201cevery single file the city has\u201d regarding toxins swirling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124300,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[262,263,266,85,267,9,24,264,12,56,63,261,65,64,11803,265],"class_list":{"0":"post-124299","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-city","9":"tag-county","10":"tag-crime-and-public-safety","11":"tag-latest-headlines","12":"tag-local-news","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-new-york-county","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-ny","18":"tag-nyc","19":"tag-nyc-crime","20":"tag-nyc-headlines","21":"tag-nyc-news","22":"tag-september-11","23":"tag-sub-county-region"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}