2026-09-095brief

Mamdani posts 170,000 pages of post-9/11 air records, says the city lied about safe air

A 2001 memo shows officials braced for toxic-exposure claims while calling the air safe.

The portal settles a lawsuit by 9/11 Health Watch. It draws partly on 68 boxes of Department of Environmental Protection records found in a city office in 2025, after earlier records requests had missed them.

The numbers:

  • 170,000 pages went live Tuesday on a new public portal.
  • October 2001 Harding memo warned of mass toxic-exposure claims — BBC and Washington Examiner put it at 35,000, TIME at 10,000.
  • More people have died of 9/11-related illnesses than were killed in the attacks.