Newly Released Records Show Officials Lied About Air Toxins Following 9/11

Ahead of the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has unsealed more than 170,000 pages of records that offer new insights into how the city responded to the disaster. Some of the papers indicate that officials lied about the hazardous toxins that burned and remained near ground zero for months afterward, even as the government assured New Yorkers the air was safe to breathe and rushed to reopen Lower Manhattan for business. In addition to the nearly 3,000 people killed on 9/11, thousands more are believed to have died from illnesses related to the attacks, including from cancer, heart disease and respiratory conditions.

“The Bush administration, the Giuliani administration all denied that there was an impact from these toxins,” says Benjamin Chevat, executive director of 9/11 Health Watch, which sued for the release of the records. He faults successive city governments for inaction, saying that “instead of mitigating the harm, they mitigated the city’s liability.”

TRANSCRIPT

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

ANJALI KAMAT: This week marks the 25th anniversary of the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center. On Tuesday, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced the historic release of more than 170,000 pages of city records from the aftermath of 9/11, some of which indicate New York City officials lied to the public about the hazardous toxins that burned and remained in the air for months up to half a mile from ground zero. Mamdani also announced the settlement of two 9/11-related lawsuits. He spoke at City Hall yesterday.

MAYOR ZOHRAN MAMDANI: We are together this morning to stand steadfast alongside survivors and their families and to deliver the kind of accountability around city government’s response to September 11th that New Yorkers have been denied for years. I am proud to announce that our administration has settled two lawsuits between the city and 9/11 Health Watch, ending what has been a multiyear legal battle and restrictions on New Yorkers’ ability to access information that can shed valuable insight on air quality and health concerns. Administration after administration has ignored those calling for answers and clarity, instead choosing to bury them in legal arguments and in red tape. We will do no such thing. As we mark 25 years, it is time for this painful chapter to end.

ANJALI KAMAT: Mayor Mamdani was joined at the press conference by talk show host Jon Stewart, who’s advocated for years on behalf of 9/11 first responders, survivors and their families.

JON STEWART: These people had to fight, sick and dying, for years. And I’m not saying that the information may have changed the outcomes, unfortunately, for their families. But I guarantee you, it would not have been the struggle that it was to get people to recognize that what they all knew, and what we all knew who live in downtown Manhattan, is that 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.

ANJALI KAMAT: And this is Congressmember Jerrold Nadler speaking at Tuesday’s City Hall press conference.

REP. JERROLD NADLER: My colleagues and I, who represented ground zero and the surrounding communities, immediately warned local and federal officials about the health risks posed by the toxins in the air. I was screaming at the top of my lungs to protect our communities, my constituents. But officials like EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman and Mayor Giuliani denied claims like mine, saying the air was perfectly safe. Blasphemous. … City Hall, led by former Mayor Giuliani, predicted that thousands of responders and community members would face devastating long-term health consequences from these toxins. Despite this, he stayed silent on the hazards.

AMY GOODMAN: The release of the documents comes as part of litigation brought by the advocacy group 9/11 Health Watch, which sued New York City to force the publication of the records. We’re joined now by Ben Chevat, executive director of 9/11 Health Watch.

Welcome to Democracy Now!

BENJAMIN CHEVAT: Thank you.

AMY GOODMAN: Give us a little background. How did these documents get released? Why was it your group that’s responsible for this?

BENJAMIN CHEVAT: Sure. So, thank you for having me.

9/11 Health Watch was created by the state — New York state AFL-CIO. How I got here is that I was Congresswoman Maloney’s chief of staff on 9/11, and I worked with — for her as she helped to develop the legislation that became the Zadroga Act, which provides healthcare.

AMY GOODMAN: Zadroga was?

BENJAMIN CHEVAT: Zadroga was the detective that we named the bill after, who died in 2006, and he was the first person to have a medical examiner declare that his death was related to dying from 9/11 exposures to the toxic chemicals that were present downtown. And I worked — you know, at the time, working for the congresswoman, we worked on the legislation. We had a real fight, because the Bush administration, the Giuliani administration all denied that there was an impact from these toxins.

I just have to point out Juan González, who was at the time the Daily News columnist, wrote several —

AMY GOODMAN: And Democracy Now! host.

BENJAMIN CHEVAT: And that’s why I bring it up — wrote several early columns raising questions about what was called 9/11 cough. And for that, the Giuliani administration apparently called the Daily News demanding that he be fired.

And that was just an example of people, like Congressman Nadler, Kimberly Flynn of Environmental Action, the local residents, including my mother, who was — lived in Battery Park, was 74 at the time, was there when the towers collapsed, was evacuated over the seawall to Jersey and hitchhiked to my brother’s house, and then returned in spring like everyone else, because the city administration at the time said it was safe. They brought kids back to school, to Stuyvesant, but not just Stuyvesant, to all the schools, the High School of Finance, which is next door to the Stock Exchange. And they brought people back, and there were questions being raised all the time: Is it safe?

And there’s been a continuing sort of attempt. You know, we got involved many years later, but there were always attempt. Obviously, Juan wrote a book about it. Anthony DePalma from The New York Times wrote a book about it. There were hints about it in 2007. Anthony DePalma mentioned the Harding memo, which was written to Deputy Mayor Harding at the time, in October of 2001, which laid out that there would be 10,000 toxic claims, they expected, because of what was happening. But this was at the same time that they said that it was safe, that the air was safe, not just Christie Todd Whitman, but the city administration.

And the latest sort of effort was really after Congressman Nadler and my old boss, Congresswoman Maloney, wrote a letter to then-Mayor de Blasio in 2021 to say, “It’s the 20th anniversary. It’s time for the city to sort of say what it knew.” Mayor de Blasio didn’t respond to that. They wrote to Mayor Adams when he was coming in, who was a 9/11 responder himself, and Mayor Adams responded but said that he would only reveal what they knew or reveal their documents if the city got more liability protection, which was sort of like an admission of, well, what’s in there. And that’s really — so, I went to Andy Carboy and Matt McCauley, two lawyers who — Matt is actually a 9/11 responder himself, NYPD. And I asked them to help volunteer. We filed FOIAs. And the city kept, as — you know, FOIA is not a great process — kept —

AMY GOODMAN: Freedom of Information Act.

BENJAMIN CHEVAT: Yeah, the Freedom of Information Act, and for whatever documents, for documents, for the Harding memo, for especially documents because in the — October, November, the Giuliani administration went to Congress, and, you know, Mrs. Maloney was not aware of it. Mr. Nadler was not aware of it. You know, in the aftermath of 9/11, there were a lot of legislation going. Apparently, they actually inserted into the law a limit of the city’s liability to no more than $350 million, which sort of says, well, why were they, at the same — exactly, at the same time they were saying — if the air was safe, why were they worried about liability?

And that’s really the core of what we were trying to get at, is — and I don’t fault the city and the response to the tragedy, and ultimately it’s the terrorists who are responsible. But instead of mitigating the harm, they mitigated the city’s liability. And instead of maybe slowing down and not bringing kids back, or maybe not bringing my mother back and other residents, they could have said, “Well, maybe we need to be more careful.” And I just want to be clear: I’m not a responder. I’ve talked to a lot of responders. A lot of responders would probably have still gone and done what they did. But I think they would have liked to have known and been given that choice. And that’s really the core of the issue.

So, we filed this FOIA. I think the really sort of the breakthrough here, because other people had done it before, and the Adams administration was just saying “no” all along, was that I approached Councilwoman Gale Brewer. And we were talking, and she said, “Well, I’ll put in a bill.” And her staff, doing some research, found that the city — the last major city charter revision had given the City Council the power to order the Department of Investigation to do an investigation. This power had never been exercised by the City Council. She put in the resolution. At the time, Speaker Adams, Adrienne Adams, supported it. And last summer, the City Council passed this resolution ordering DOI to do this investigation.

And then, three weeks later, four weeks later, the city informed us that they had found 68 boxes. Obviously, they had said there were no — there were no boxes, there were no — there was nothing available. The way FOIA works, once they made that administrative decision, we filed what’s called an Article 78, which is, under New York state law, sort of demanding that the — asking the question: Was the law followed? Once the City Council acted, and they — last September, I think it was, that they said they found those 68 boxes, that’s when things really started to happen.

And, you know, the election happened. Mayor Mamdani came in. And we’ve been waiting, trying — you know, hoping that Mayor Mamdani would change the direction of the corporation counsel, because this is really four administrations that have not allowed people to see these documents. And —

AMY GOODMAN: What’s most important to you about the documents that have been released, as we begin to wrap up?

BENJAMIN CHEVAT: Well, I think just that they’re being seen. People will see it. I don’t — and let me be clear: I don’t know whether there’s going to be a smoking gun or like a memo or something like that. But we’ve already seen there was a lot more that the city was keeping from people, for actively preventing people from seeing. You know, we won our court case. Judge Clynes, in our case, in one of our cases, found that the city violated the law, actively preventing us from receiving the documents that we were entitled to see. And, you know, that’s really the key part. And I give the mayor and then Steve Banks, the new corporation counsel, a lot of credit to that.

ANJALI KAMAT: And, Ben Chevat, what’s been the reaction of previous mayors, from the four administrations that did not release the 68 boxes?

BENJAMIN CHEVAT: I haven’t heard from them, or I haven’t seen any press reports about it, of what they’ve said.

AMY GOODMAN: So, what do you do with these documents, in this last 30 seconds?

BENJAMIN CHEVAT: Well, this is a — this is still — this is just the first batch of documents. Over the next year, there’s going to be a lot more. We are working — as part of our settlement agreement, we are working with Steve Banks and the —

AMY GOODMAN: And Steve Banks is formerly with Legal Aid.

BENJAMIN CHEVAT: Formerly with Legal Aid, yes. And we’re working with them on search terms. There’s just a vast amount of these documents that have to go through.

AMY GOODMAN: That people can go through a portal and get access to.

BENJAMIN CHEVAT: And people will be able to go to the portal, go to the New York City — go to the New York City website. They can go through it, and they can see for themselves. And we’re already hearing people saying, “Well, I see this.” And just to say that it’s — it is difficult for the city. The city has to make sure there’s no personal information. We don’t want Social Security numbers. I mean, it’s a vast amount of information, so it is going to take time.

AMY GOODMAN: And Mamdani has, what, given something like $30-$40 million.

BENJAMIN CHEVAT: It’s $34 million. But —

AMY GOODMAN: Thirty-four million.

BENJAMIN CHEVAT: And it’s not just — and I just want to say, with the mayor, it’s not just about the documents. The mayor is going to be working to promote the program. I mean, before, you and I were talking, before this segment. You live downtown. You might qualify for it. There are so many more people who may not understand what’s in the Zadroga Act, what’s available for them. And more importantly, there’s work that should have been done a long time ago. There’s now this new, what’s called a youth research cohort, that the mayor is going to help to promote, to try to really do some real research that hasn’t been done on those who were children at the time, and to really see what their health effects have been.

AMY GOODMAN: Benjamin Chevat, we want to thank you so much for being with us, executive director of 9/11 Health Watch. He participated in yesterday’s news conference. His organization is the one that forced the release of these 170,000 pages of 9/11 documents.

This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. When we come back, Seasons of Fury: Four Families and the Rise of Islamophobia in America. We look at what’s happened in this last 25 years, the targeting of the Muslim community. Stay with us.

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AMY GOODMAN: “Wild Gods” by David Berkeley.