NYC Council Speaker Menin to Mamdani: Release 'every single' document on 9/11 toxins

Thomas Tracy, New York Daily News on Feb 5, 2026

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NEW YORK — City Council Speaker Julie Menin on Thursday demanded that “every single file the city has” regarding toxins swirling above ground zero following 9/11 be made public following a bombshell discovery of an internal city memo that proved the city feared the dangers just weeks after the terror attacks.

“My mother died from a 9/11 related cancer,” said Menin (D-Manhattan), who worked and lived just blocks from the World Trade Center in 2001. “(After the attacks) the city told us to put wet cloths on our windows. They echoed what Christie Todd Whitman and others said that the air was safe.”

The discovery of the long-sought Harding memo, made public Wednesday, proves that the city, just weeks after 9/11, were bracing for potential lawsuits over “health advisories (that) caused individuals to return to the area too soon (causing toxic exposure or emotional harm).”

“If there ever was a smoking gun, this is a smoking gun,” Menin said about the memo at a press conference outside City Hall with Councilwoman Gale Brewer (D-Manhattan), FDNY union officials and attorneys for 9/11 survivors.

“It’s really shameful that this city hid this information and refused to disclose it. It’s unconscionable that the city hasn’t taken responsibility for basically lying to not only our first responders, but the whole downtown community.”

More than 140,000 first responders and survivors are now enrolled in the U.S. Center for Disease Control’s WTC Health Program, which provides 9/11-related health care benefits. Out of that number, about 81,000 have a certified condition linked to the toxins that hung above ground zero.

On the day of the terror attacks, 343 FDNY members died in the collapse of the twin towers. Since then, an additional 424 members have died of 9/11-related illnesses.

Survivor advocates and union officials are calling on Mamdani to release all the documents, something his predecessors dating back to Giuliani has failed to do, claiming that releasing the information could lead to lawsuits.

They also want Mamdani to fully fund the $3 million Department of Investigation probe into what and when the city knew about the dangers of the toxins.

The unearthed memo won’t likely cause a flurry of lawsuits since first responders and survivors who are receiving help from the WTC Health Program and the 9/11 Victim Compensation fund have already signed waivers agreeing not to sue over their illnesses. More than 100,000 people have signed these waivers, officials said.

But the air quality studies conducted by the city more than 20 years ago could be imperative to learning more about the cancers that survivors are facing, advocates said.

“They lied to limit their liability and hid the records,” Andrew Ansbro, the president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association said about prior administrations. “They made a conscious choice to keep these cancers hidden instead of studying them. And now 25 years of mayoral sins are dropping on the Mayor’s lap.”

“We’re saying to (Mamdani), do not make it your sin,” he said.

An email to City Hall regarding these requests were not immediately returned.

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