The 25th anniversary of 9/11 was days away when the City of New York released around 170,000 now declassified files about the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. On September 8th, the Tuesday before the Friday of 9/11, the current Mayor of New York City, Mayor Zohran Mamdani declassified 170,000 documents revealing the coverup by the government people into thinking the air was safe when the air was actually toxic and harmful.
“As the years pass and the human toll grows, we reckon with the cost of September 11th whenever another New Yorker is stolen from us too soon,” the Mayor said according to CNN on Sept. 8, “Now, close to 25 years later, more people have died from 9/11-related illnesses than were killed on the day itself.”
The documents reveal many human lives were lost and had their health impacted in the years following the tragedy.
The documents include tests done between October and November of 2001, high levels of toxins were regularly detected, including hard-to-detect dangerous chemicals in the air and asbestos. City officials assured citizens that the air was safe for years.
Jon Stewart, the host of the Daily Show, and long time advocate of 9/11 survivors said, “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.”
9/11 Memorial, ground zero New York City Photo: Jenny Duran
IWU political science professor William Munro said, “It is a politically safe target, ”in reference to Mayor Mamdani’s decision to release the files, “it shows he is transparent.” Munro referenced an incident off the coast of California, the East LA Oil Spill in 1992, where impacted residents were evacuated, “You can’t do that with New York.”
“Who bears the cost?” as Munro put it, who is responsible for the cleaning the city, paying reparations and the well-being of New Yorkers. Evacuating the City of New York would’ve had extreme consequences, so the solution chosen by the city was to downplay the severity of the issue. “It wasn’t all in bad faith,” but the city did not prioritize transparency.
These documents come after years of city officials downplaying to the citizens of New York the aftermath of 9/11, the toxins, in conflict with these documents.
There isn’t a precise number to those who died due to the aftermath of 9/11, according to the 9/11 Memorial, there are currently 140,000 people across all 50 states enrolled in the World Trade Center Health Program, a federal program which provides medical monitoring and health treatments for health conditions due to 9/11.
Around 8,000 people who enrolled in the program have died, though it is unclear how many due to the events of 9/11.
