By Y.M. Lowy

More than 170,000 pages of records related to the September 11 attacks and their aftermath are now available to the public, giving New Yorkers a new look at how city officials handled air-quality concerns, health warnings and potential legal liability in the months following the attacks.

The records were released through a newly launched searchable 9/11 Document Portal, just days before the 25th anniversary of the attacks.

The release is part of a settlement of two Freedom of Information Law lawsuits seeking access to records from the aftermath of 9/11. The city has also agreed to continue searching and releasing additional records over the next year, with monthly meetings between the parties involved.

The first release includes more than 20,000 documents found in August 2025 in 68 boxes of Department of Environmental Protection records. It also includes records from the Giuliani administration preserved by the city archives, documents concerning the collapse of 7 World Trade Center and records from several other city agencies.

The records provide details about the environmental conditions in Lower Manhattan after the attacks. Reports reviewed as part of the release include references to asbestos and other contaminants in dust and air, including some measurements that exceeded acceptable limits.

The material being released today is only the beginning. Millions of additional records connected to the city’s response to 9/11 are now being reviewed, including documents that had previously been transferred to the World Trade Center Captive Insurance Company as part of the city’s defense against litigation.

Those records are expected to be released in stages over the coming year, with limited exceptions for personal information and certain security-related material.

The city is also facing a separate Department of Investigation inquiry into how post-9/11 air-quality information was handled, including what officials knew, when they knew it and how decisions were made.

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