Sept. 8 (UPI) — New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday released city documents containing more than 170,000 pages of previously undisclosed records in the years after Sept. 11, 2001, that showed officials knew the air quality was bad while they told the public it was safe.
Mamdani announced the release at a press conference Tuesday.
“As the years pass and the human toll grows, we reckon with the cost of Sept. 11 whenever another New Yorker is stolen from us too soon,” Mamdani said. “Now, close to 25 years later, more people have died from 9/11-related illnesses than were killed on the day itself.”
At least 140,000 people have enrolled in the World Trade Center Health Program, and 49,000 have been diagnosed with cancers related to the event, CNN reported. Mamdani said that more people are eligible for aid than are enrolled, including people who lived near the site.
When Congress created the health program in 2011, cancer wasn’t covered. But after advocates fought for it and a study showed elevated cancer rates among firefighters who were on the scene, it was added in 2012.
The documents also include memos, including the Harding Memo, sent to then-Deputy Mayor Robert Harding. That memo showed that city officials expected thousands of lawsuits due to air exposure. The memo also included ideas to limit the city’s liability.
“People got sick because the leaders they trusted lied and told them they were safe to breathe in toxic air,” Mamdani said.
Mamdani was asked if the delay in releasing the documents was a cover-up.
“This was multiple mayoral administrations refusing to release documents that New Yorkers were owed,” he replied.
At the press conference, Mamdani was flanked by families of Sept. 11 victims as well as The Daily Show host and producer Jon Stewart, who has pushed for transparency and help for first responders and survivors.
“There was poison in the air, and on the ground, and in the window sills, and in your air conditioners and covering your pets and your clothes, and it stayed there for months. Everyone knew. Now it’s very clear that the city knew as well,” Stewart said.
Karen Klingon, who lost her brother, was at the press conference Tuesday. Her brother, Robert Klingon, lived near the World Trade Center. He died in 2020 of a brain tumor, she said.
“I think there wasn’t just lack of transparency; there was a lack of regard for people, and I find that very disturbing,” Klingon told CNN. “Also, my brother was a lawyer and had a very acute sense of justice and injustice, and he would have certainly been appalled by the injustice of the lack of transparency and the lack of concern for people who are still suffering.”
The documents are available via a searchable portal. The city will add more material in the coming months, officials said.
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