What NYC Knew About 9/11 Air Quality — And What They Didn’t Tell Us

A newly uncovered memo confirms what the 9/11 community has long suspected: city officials were aware of the dangers of Ground Zero toxins while publicly assuring residents, workers, and first responders that the air in Lower Manhattan was safe to breathe.

Dated October 2001, the memo from the City’s Law Department warned senior officials that tens of thousands of lawsuits could result from people returning to the area too soon. The City’s Law Department shamefully focused on the City’s potential legal liability rather than the public’s health. People trusted the guidance they were given, returned to their homes and jobs, and many are now living with life-threatening illnesses, including 69 different cancers and chronic respiratory diseases.

The document surfaced only after pro bono attorneys representing 9/11 victims located it in a journalist’s archived files, not through any voluntary disclosure by the City. Only after sustained pressure did the city acknowledge that it possessed dozens of additional boxes of health-related documents it had long claimed did not exist, raising serious concerns about the completeness of past disclosures.

“This uncovered memo is truly heartbreaking and infuriating — it shows city officials privately understood the risks of deadly 9/11 toxins even as they publicly assured people the air was safe,” said Barasch & McGarry Managing Partner Michael Barasch.

“For decades, survivors, first responders, and families have deserved honesty and transparency, not silence. We must honor those who fell ill by demanding full disclosure of what was known and when, and ensure lessons are finally learned. The community shouldn’t have to fight this hard just to uncover the truth. We will never know how many downtown responders and civilians got sick and died because of the city’s failure to disclose the truth.”