City releases long-sought 9/11 documents revealing early knowledge of toxins

New website with 170,000 pages of docs to be added to over the next year

Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced the release of more than 170,000 pages of documents from the period after the 9/11 terror attacks that reveal city officials knew the toxic air and dust surrounding Ground Zero could be potentially harmful while they publicly assured New Yorkers that the area was safe. The document dump on a new, searchable website is the first large release from the city following years of outcry from advocates for first responders and local lawmakers for the city to publicize all the documents in its possession from the period after the attacks that elucidate the city's knowledge of asbestos and other harmful toxins found throughout lower Manhattan.  

The initial release includes documents from 68 boxes formerly in the possession of the Department of Environmental Protection that were first released to advocates with 9/11 Health Watch last year, papers from the Rudy Giuliani administration stored with the Department of Records and Information Services and documents in the Law Department's possession regarding the collapse of World Trade Center 7.