A bombshell memo made public Thursday proves the city knew about the potential risks of Sept. 11, 2001 toxins weeks after the terror attacks \u2014 as officials told New Yorkers it was safe to return to Lower Manhattan, local pols said.<\/p>\n
City Council Speaker Julie Menin and Councilwoman Gale Brewer (D-Manhattan) unveiled the October 2001 memo, in which Big Apple lawyers admitted the city could face tens of thousands of lawsuits, including from people exposed to toxins after being advised they could return to the area around Ground Zero too soon.<\/p>\n
\u201cHealth advisories caused individuals either to return to the area too soon (causing toxic exposure or emotional harm) or too late (causing economic hardship),\u201d the city Law Department wrote in the memo to Bob Harding, then\u2013Deputy Mayor for Economic Development under Mayor Rudy Giuliani.<\/p>\n
A bombshell memo revealed to the public for the first time proves the city knew about risks of Sept. 11 contaminants weeks after the attacks. Luiz C. Ribeiro for NY Post<\/p>\n
\u201cThe city of New York has failed to take responsibility for telling the downtown community and first responders that the air was safe to breathe,\u201d Menin said. New York Post<\/p>\n
\u201cAs we head into the 25th anniversary of 9\/11, it\u2019s really just shameful that the city gave this information and refused to disclose this information,\u201d Menin, who ran a small business in the Financial District at the time of the attacks, said outside City Hall.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is just such a shocking situation,\u201d she said, \u201cthat the city of New York has failed to take responsibility for telling the downtown community and first responders that the air was safe to breathe and that we should all be staying in Lower Manhattan.\u201d<\/p>\n
The document does not show that the city knew about the contaminants still filling the air when it advised New Yorkers it was safe to return to the area around the World Trade Center.<\/p>\n
But it served as a \u201crisk assessment\u201d showing lawyers for the city admitting they could face up to 10,000 liability claims from residents over potential respiratory issues from contaminants including metals and asbestos, Menin said.<\/p>\n
Nearly 50,000 first responders and others have been diagnosed with 9\/11-related cancers.<\/a><\/p>\n The scathing document served as a \u201crisk assessment\u201d between city liability and safeguarding residents from carcinogens, Menin said. Luiz C. Ribeiro for NY Post<\/p>\n The so-called \u201cHarding memo\u201d was first referenced in journalist Wayne Barrett\u2019s 2006 book \u201cThe Grand Illusion,\u201d though it was never clear how he obtained it.<\/p>\n It was finally found last week by the pro-bono attorneys for 9\/11 victims at the University of Texas, which inherited Barrett\u2019s estate.<\/p>\n Though the university told victims\u2019 lawyers in December that they had no record of the memo, clerks agreed to comb through 300 boxes of Barrett\u2019s documents \u2013 and found the missing memo in January.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is outrageous, and it is shocking, and it is heartbreaking that \u2026 the state of Texas is telling us more about what the city knew and when it knew it than the mayor\u2019s offices have told us for the past 45 years,\u201d said 9\/11 victims\u2019 attorney Andrew Carboy.<\/p>\n City Council aides hold blown-up copies of the so-called \u201cHarding Memo,\u201d which warned of potential respiratory issues from contaminants including metals and asbestos days after the September 11 attacks. Luiz C. Ribeiro for NY Post<\/p>\n The memo release is part of a larger effort to make public records related to the Sept. 11. attacks.<\/p>\n The city previously moved to dismiss attempts to disclose its own toxin records, at one point claiming it had no documents \u2013 and only reversed course last year after a Department of Investigation probe spearheaded by Brewer found\u00a068 boxes of 9\/11 health-related documents<\/a>, according to lawyers for some of the victims.<\/p>\n The council members and victims\u2019 lawyers are now calling on Mayor Zohran Mamdani to fund a $3 million project to probe and release the records.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s time for the mayor to step up and do what he needs to do to get the right and the information out to people who really need it,\u201d said Thomas Hart, who sits on the board of 9\/11 Health Watch.<\/p>\n Menin and Brewer said newly-minted mayor\u2019s office attorney Steve Banks \u201cfavorably indicated to both of us that he was committed to do that\u201d at his confirmation hearing Wednesday.<\/p>\n