Then-Mayor Giuliani said in late October 2001, 'I'm told it's not dangerous'

Audit report from that November found benzene levels continuously surging

The 9/11 Memorial in New York (Getty Images)
The 9/11 Memorial in New York (Getty Images)

New York City may have known the full extent of hazardous air pollution around the World Trade Center site after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to documents unveiled 25 years later. The city, however, told residents the air was safe anyway.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani released more than 170,000 pages of documents online Tuesday (local time), marking the 25th anniversary of the attacks. The documents detail air quality and pollution around the former World Trade Center site and the city's response.

City officials said the records had sat unopened for more than 20 years in 68 boxes stored in City Hall offices, only coming to light last year.

An audit report written in November 2001 found that benzene, a known carcinogen, kept surging in the air near the fallen twin towers. Asbestos levels also rose in the air at the Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island, where much of the debris from the World Trade Center was taken after the attacks.

According to the documents, traces of asbestos were still found as far as 0.5 miles (about 800 meters) from the World Trade Center in July 2002. That was 10 months after the attacks.

But the city and federal authorities largely sent the message at the time that the air was safe.

Then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani said in late October 2001, "If you smell something, it seems like there's a problem, but I'm told it's not dangerous to your health." His successor, Michael Bloomberg, said the following February, "Every test conducted has shown air quality is within an acceptable range."

The documents also include what is known as the "Harding memo." In it, the city internally reviewed, shortly after the attacks, the possibility of facing tens of thousands of damage lawsuits over exposure to toxic substances.

The New York Times said the records support the possibility that residents and workers were exposed to hazardous substances. They had been told to return to the area around Ground Zero before it was fully safe.

Mamdani said, "The bare minimum our city owes to the families, survivors and first responders whose lives were forever changed by the horrific 9/11 attacks is transparency and accountability."

Trump, at 9/11 memorial event, says

America is 'bigger, better, stronger than ever'

US President Donald Trump (Getty Images)
US President Donald Trump (Getty Images)

Meanwhile, on the same day, President Trump attended the "Steel Across America" event at the Ellipse, a park just south of the White House in Washington. He said, "Our country is bigger, better and stronger than ever before."

The event, held ahead of the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, served as a memorial for the victims.

The nonprofit Tunnel to Towers Foundation has toured a roughly 6.4-meter-long, 7.6-ton steel beam recovered from the wreckage of the World Trade Center's South Tower across the country since May.

Trump said, "So much has changed since that day, but this crumpled piece of steel placed at the Ellipse on Sept. 9 reminds us that America is a nation blessed with a strength that no fire can burn, no evil can conquer and no terror can destroy."

The Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, carried out by al-Qaida, the Islamist militant group led by Osama bin Laden, are remembered as one of the worst tragedies in US history.

Four hijacked commercial airliners crashed into the two World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon, while a fourth crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing about 3,000 people.

Bin Laden was killed on May 2, 2011.


yul@heraldcorp.com