A quarter-century after the towers fell, New York City has released 170,000 pages of internal documents confirming what survivors long suspected: officials knew the air around Ground Zero was laced with asbestos within weeks of the attacks, yet told the public it was safe. The gap between institutional knowledge and public declaration has cost more lives than the attacks themselves, with health-related deaths now surpassing the nearly 3,000 who perished on that September morning. In the long arc of civic trust, these records arrive as both reckoning and remainder — proof that the second catast
Newly released files reveal NYC officials knew 9/11 air was toxic but told public it was safe
Thousands of 9/11 responders and residents developed cancers and other illnesses; health-related deaths now exceed the nearly 3,000 who died in the attacks themselves.