NYC unveils records suggesting officials knew air was unsafe after 9/11
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Add Axios on Google Workers at the 9/11 Memorial Museum during the evening cleaning of one of the 9/11 Memorial reflecting pools on Sept. 3 in New York City. Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani 's administration released more than 170,000 pages of documents Tuesday that suggest city officials knew air conditions following the 9/11 attacks were unsafe, despite assurances otherwise.
The big picture: Twenty-five years later, New Yorkers are still seeking a full accounting of what city officials knew about the toxic air around Ground Zero and whether they were honest with the public about the risks.
Driving the news: The release includes air quality reports, contamination records and internal correspondence that shed light on what city officials knew about the toxic air near Ground Zero.
9/11 Health Watch executive director Ben Chevat said Tuesday that "since 9/11, four different mayoral administrations worked to keep the answer from the public, even as city officials at the time continued to say that the air was quote 'safe and acceptable.'"
Flashback : Christine Todd Whitman, the former head of the Environmental Protection Agency under the Bush administration, told The Guardian 10 years ago that she was wrong to assure New Yorkers that the air was safe.
What they're saying: Comedian Jon Stewart, who in the years following the attack became a vocal advocate for first responders' health, said at Tuesday's announcement that the city "buried" evidence for 25 years, starting soon after the attacks.
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