NYC still hasn't released any documents on air quality after 9/11

There are two monuments in Lower Manhattan that mark the spot where the World Trade Center once towered over the rest of the city. And around those sites are engraved the names of the 2,753 people who died there more than 23 years ago.

But in these almost 24 years, this too has become a reality.

“More people died after September 11 than in the attack,” said Bridget Gormley.

Unfortunately, she knows this statistic firsthand. In 2017, Gormley's father, New York City firefighter Billy Gormley, died of bladder cancer.

It is one of several dozen illnesses now linked to the toxic dust that so many New Yorkers inhaled after the September 11 terrorist attacks in Lower Manhattan.

Tens of thousands of people are sick. And people are still dying from these diseases.

“Many people don’t realize that 9/11 didn’t end on 9/11,” Gormley said.

Thanks to one of its latest exhibitions, more and more people are learning this at the 9/11 Memorial Museum.

The title is “Dust: Illness and Advocacy After 9/11,” and the latest exhibition has been years in the making, according to museum president Elizabeth Hillman.

People see what toxins were tested, what lives the dust destroyed, and how long it took to raise the funds needed to support these victims.

“I think the more we learn from the way governments and people respond to the aftermath of a disaster, the better we can assess what responsibility we will face in the future,” says Hillman.

The response to air quality in the city centre has been scrutinised.

In the days following the terrorist attacks, Christine Todd Whitman, then head of the US Environmental Protection Agency, declared the air in the city center safe. Years later, she apologized for this.

But the air quality measurements were not just a reaction of the federal government.

Last year, a comprehensive request containing 28 public records was sent to several city agencies, including information on tests conducted, daily updates for then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani and when parts of Lower Manhattan would reopen.

This summer, NY1 reported that both New York City Emergency Management and the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) responded, but both said they did not have any documentation.

The Department of Emergency Management did not respond to NY1's request for comment. The Department of Emergency Management referred NY1 to City Hall, where a spokesperson said the response would “require a comprehensive legal review to identify confidential material and liability risks.”

This is not the same as not having any documents.

“Well, you see, if they [Freedom of Information Law]that's a big problem,” said Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman, who represents Lower Manhattan. “It's illegal.”

When asked if he thought the city was violating the Public Documents Act, he said he did not know yet.

“I don't know the details well enough,” he said, before elaborating. “But what — if indeed their answers are that there are no documents, and yet — the documents exist and there are some documents related to it, and I would be very surprised if there aren't any, then that is a violation of FOIL.”

Goldman wrote a letter to Rep. Jerry Nadler this year pleading with the city to release the files.

“There continues to be a public health need to understand what was in the air at the time. This will help doctors and healthcare professionals treat survivors,” he said.

Then there is the question of why the mayor's office spokesman said the city would not release anything due to potential privileges and liability risks.

While privilege is an exception to FOIL, liability is not, according to Cory Morris, an attorney who has sued the city several times for public records.

“The exceptions are clear,” he said.

While he said that some documents and files could be redacted for good reason, a complete denial?

“I am at a loss for words,” he said.

A lawsuit has already been filed to get those documents from the DEP, but the fight, Morris said, may be just beginning.

“I think this will drag on for years, but it shouldn't be like this,” he said.