Toxic Secrets in the Shadows of Ground Zero The release of tens of thousands of previously undisclosed documents by New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani has shed a harsh light on the city's handling of air toxicity after the September 11 attacks.
For 25 years, officials kept secrets from the public, Congress, and even the City Council about the dangers of toxic chemicals in Lower Manhattan and Western Brooklyn. The consequences of this secrecy are stark.
According to the federal medical monitoring program, over 9,400 people have died from illnesses linked to their exposure to the area around Ground Zero, while thousands more continue to suffer from related health issues.