NYC Council measure calls for city to review, disclose who knew what about post-9/11 toxic air

New York City Council legislation introduced earlier this week would force the city's government to study its long-secret files to investigate who knew what about Manhattan’s toxic air unleashed in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks — then disclose the findings.

The review, to be done by the city’s Department of Investigation, would need to be finished within two years of the legislation’s passage and would “ascertain the knowledge possessed by mayoral administrations” about the air, a plume of asbestos, lead, heavy metals, smoke, dust and other toxic chemicals that blanketed the neighborhoods around the World Trade Center.

An estimated 400,000 people were exposed and about 80,000 have been sickened, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In the aftermath of the attacks, officials said the air was safe.

The federal government has admitted it was wrong, but less is known about what the city knew about the air.

Under successive mayoralties — Rudy Giuliani, Mike Bloomberg, Bill de Blasio and Eric Adams — the city has not disclosed much.

“We know that there have been rumors that there’s information, but we don’t actually know,” said city Councilwoman Gale Brewer (D-Manhattan), a sponsor of the legislation, a resolution. She said that if passed, the resolution cannot be vetoed by the mayor due to its legal structure, pursuant to a provision in the city charter. She added: “This is public information, and it should be transparent, and it could save lives.”

Allison Maser, an Adams spokesperson, said in an email Friday: “As a former first responder who worked the site at Ground Zero, Mayor Adams is unwavering in his support of the 9/11 victims, first responders, families, and survivors. We will review the legislation.”

Earlier this year, a 9/11 watchdog group sued the city for access to records that could show what the city knew about the toxins.

Two days after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, the federal government began issuing dangerously inaccurate assurances that the air was safe in lower Manhattan.

Those statements included one issued by the then-head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Christine Todd Whitman, who said that the EPA was doing air monitoring, and “the public in these areas are not being exposed to excessive levels of asbestos or other harmful substances.”

“Given the scope of the tragedy from last week,” Whitman said at the time, “I am glad to reassure the people of New York and Washington, D.C., that their air is safe to breathe and their water is safe to drink.”

A report in 2003 by the EPA’s watchdog unit concluded that her agency lacked proper data to claim the air was safe, and that the White House under President George W. Bush improperly interfered to demand a reassuring tone that the public was safe.

For her part, Whitman has apologized, saying she “feels awful.”

“I’m very sorry that people are sick,” she told The Guardian newspaper in 2016. “I’m very sorry that people are dying and if the EPA and I in any way contributed to that, I’m sorry. We did the very best we could at the time with the knowledge we had.”

She added: “Every time it comes around to the anniversary I cringe, because I know people will bring up my name, they blame me, they say that I lied and that people died because I lied, [they say] people have died because I made a mistake.”

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.