"The Mamdani administration is releasing more than 170,000 pages of documents related to the air quality around the World Trade Center site in the months after the Sept. 11 attacks."
"In the harrowing months th�at followed the attacks on the World Trade Center, New Yorkers were repeatedly assured that the air around the fallen towers was safe to breathe.
But 10 months later, health officials were still finding evidence of asbestos as much as half a mile away, according to a sample of air quality records being released on Tuesday.
The documents, reviewed by The New York Times in advance of their release, include more than 170,000 pages of air quality reports, contamination records and correspondence among city officials. The records were stored in 68 boxes in a city office, shielded from public view for more than two decades and, according to city officials, discovered only last year.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani has directed his administration to release the records to the public through an online portal, timing it to the commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the attacks in Lower Manhattan."
Sally Goldenberg and Nina Agrawal report for the New York Times September 8, 2026.
