Harding memo reveals city's early knowledge of toxic fumes following 9/11

Spurs calls for Mamdani to publicize all of city's WTC documents

A long-sought memo from October 2001 reveals that city officials feared 9/11 first responders and survivors returned to lower Manhattan too soon after the terror attacks, weren’t being provided with proper protective equipment and could suffer due to the toxic exposure. In the wake of the memo’s release last week, union leaders and elected officials renewed their calls for the Mayor Zohran Mamdani to release all documents in the city’s possession that illuminate what the city knew about the dangerous chemicals swirling over lower Manhattan in the months following 9/11.  

The “Harding memo” was released by attorneys who have battled city officials for years to turnover documents on the attacks that the city generated in the weeks after 9/11. The memo was sent to Deputy Mayor Robert Harding by another City Hall official and warned that, according to the city’s Law Department, “there are approximately 35,000 potential plaintiffs as a result of the events of September 11 and it is estimate[d] that 10,000 would file a claim.”