Council's resolution would compel city to release info about WTC toxic cloud

First responders suffering from illnesses related to the September 11th terrorist attacks could finally learn what the city knew about the toxic cloud that lingered above ground zero for months after the attacks under a City Council resolution proposed Thursday. 

The binding resolution, introduced by Council Member Gale Brewer, would compel the city’s Department of Investigation to probe City Hall and city agencies for information about the air toxins, details that have so far been withheld from the public. 

Brewer said she introduced the resolution to get answers for a community of survivors and heroes that has been seeking them for more than two decades. 

“This is public information, this is not private information, and it should be available to the public in a transparent fashion,” Brewer said in an interview Wednesday. "Every bit of information should be available for people undergoing treatment. This could be beneficial to people who are sick, which is incredibly important."

More than twice the number of people who were killed in the immediate aftermath of the attacks have since passed away from illnesses tied to their time on the pile or downtown. More than 130,000 people are enrolled in the World Trade Center Health Program, according to the Centers for Disease Control. 

Lawsuits from survivors and freedom of information act requests from advocates have failed to compel the city to release information about the toxic cloud. Elected officials have also tried to get the information, with representatives Jerry Nadler and Dan Goldman appealing to Mayor Eric Adams directly in a letter in April.

“The City still refuses to be transparent about what the Giuliani Administration knew about the danger of the toxins that covered lower Manhattan and Western Brooklyn at the same time it was publicly stating that it was safe for the public to return to the area surrounding Ground Zero,” the representatives wrote. “To this day, thousands of New Yorkers and countless first responders continue to deal with the health impacts of the toxins that were in the air at that time. The City dishonors these men and women, many now dead, by refusing to open its 9/11 files to the public.”

This isn’t the first legislative attempt to get the city to release the information. Nadler and former Upper East Side Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney wrote then-Mayor Bill de Blasio in September 2021 requesting city documents about the air quality following the attacks. 

Nadler this week said in a statement that he’s in support of Brewer’s resolution, arguing that the mayor’s lack of response to his letter “denies justice” to thousands of New Yorkers with 9/11 related illnesses. “New Yorkers deserve the truth — and I urge the City Council to take up this legislation to require the Department of Investigations to conduct a review of the records and disclose what the City knew while claiming it was safe for us to return to Ground Zero,” he said.

Brewer’s resolution mandates that the DOI submit a report to the City Council about its findings after two years. The bill parlays a little known clause in the city charter that allows the City Council to order an investigation without the need for the mayor’s signature. Adams can’t veto the resolution. 

A City Hall spokesperson said in a statement that the mayor’s office would review the legislation. “As a former first responder who worked the site at Ground Zero, Mayor Adams is unwavering in his support of the 9/11 victims, first responders, families, and survivors,” the spokesperson said. 

The DOI declined to comment.

'Uncover the facts'

Brewer said it's the first time that she can remember the Council attempting to pass a binding resolution. It has the support of Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, making its passage more likely.

"Our city government owes New Yorkers transparency about its knowledge on the toxins produced by the attacks,” Adams said in a statement. “This resolution takes a crucial step towards requiring disclosure of public health information, which should be considered a basic responsibility of government in a democracy.”

The legislation also garnered the support of Andrew Ansbro, the president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association. Ansbro, who responded on September 11th, noted this week that the FDNY has now buried the 369th and 370th member of the department to die from World Trade Center-related illnesses, more than the 343 members who perished that September morning.

“Those of us that are still alive owe it to the families of the sick and those who have passed to uncover the facts about what the city knew after the attacks, what they knew was there, and who made the decisions that have affected the lives of so many,” he said in a statement.  

Ansbro and others have also been lobbying members of Congress to pass recently introduced legislation that would fund the WTC health program through 2033, as well as tweak the funding formula to ensure it remains solvent through 2090. Sponsors of the bill in both houses have warned that, due to the increasing number of first responders and survivors signing up, the program could run out of money by 2028.  

Brewer said that getting the information out to the public is personal to her because she’s known many people who have passed away from illnesses that they contracted working at ground zero. She felt the resolution was needed after Adams didn’t fulfill Nadler and Goldman’s request.

“Some people in the city government say they don’t have it, other people say they don’t want to share it and so nothing happens,” she said. “What does the city know that could maybe be helpful to people?” 

dfreeman@thechiefleader.com

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