Firefighter Union Demands Answers after NYC Finds Nearly 70 Boxes of Info on 9/11 Toxins

Safety at Work

New York City, NY (WorkersCompensation.com) – The union representing firefighters in New York City is demanding answers after officials discovered 68 boxes of documents on the hazards posed by toxins in 9/11 debris.

For years, New York City Hall claimed it couldn’t find any records on what authorities knew about health hazards faced by Ground Zero first responders.

“For years, our members made life-and-death medical decisions based on the city’s repeated assurances that the air was safe and there were ‘no records,'” said Andrew Ansbro, president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association that represents the Fire Department of New York firefighters. “Now we learn there were tens of thousands of pages locked away — pages that could have changed treatment plans, sped up diagnoses, and maybe even saved lives.”

In 2023, attorney Andrew Carboy filed a Freedom of Information Request with the city on behalf of 911 Health Watch seeking records and documents as to what then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and his administration knew about the health impacts of Ground Zero toxins on first responders and residents. City attorneys responded that the Department of Environmental Protection didn’t have any documents and that the search was a “fishing expedition.”

“After a diligent search was performed of DEP’s records, no responsive records were found,” city attorneys claimed in court papers at the time.

Earlier this year, City Councilwoman Gale Brewer introduced a resolution ordering the DOI to find out what information the city had on Ground Zero toxins and when they had it. The resolution passed unanimously on July 14.

Brewer said even New York’s Congressional delegation had previously asked for information and the requests were denied.

The city has fought against the release of 9/11 studies and documents saying they couldn’t find them. It has also said it was worried about lawsuits from first responders suffering from 9/11 illnesses if the documents were released.

In his court filings, Carboy said, “On March 22, 2023, Mayor (Eric) Adams wrote to the members of Congress, acknowledging that such previously unreleased documents existed, but advising that they would not be disclosed. The Mayor cited ‘litigation risks’ as a barrier.”

Adams also requested both federal funding and additional federal protections before releasing the documents.

After Brewer’s resolution passed, the DOI sent letters to every agency, asking them to identify and turn over any relevant documents they had on 9/11 toxins following the terror attacks, officials said. Nearly all of the agencies contacted have responded to the DOI’s request.

“It’s working,” Brewer said about the DOI investigation.

Reporting from the New York Daily News about the response within city departments to the DOI’s investigation forced the city to finally admit in court that the records existed.

“Recently, (the DEP) has located multiple boxes that are believed to contain at least some responsive records,” Assistant Corporation Counsel Saarah Dhinsa wrote in a letter to the courts in regard to Carboy’s request.

The admission the records existed was long overdue, Carboy said, and the city had gone through great pains to deny they existed.

“A DEP staffer swore under penalties of perjury, in a written Court submission, that no documents could be located. Two attorneys, in separate certifications, then attested, as officers of the Court, that no documents could be found,” Carboy told the New York Daily News.

“The city then criticized our efforts as baseless,” he said.

Carboy said he will continue to pursue the matter.

“Who gave the order to hide them? Who knew? And how many firefighters died because these documents never saw the light of day?” he added.

On Sept. 11, 2001, 343 FDNY members died when the towers fell. Since then, another 400 members have died from illnesses linked to the toxins advocates say the firefighters and others were exposed to on 9/11 and during the days of rescue and clean up that followed.

Ansbro said the revelation the documents existed was evidence of “a betrayal of the men and women who risked everything on 9/11” and is demoing sworn depositions from city officials.

“We will not allow one page to be buried, redacted, or sanitized. If the city can hide information that kills firefighters once, they can do it again — and we will not stand for it,” he said. “We want the truth — every last bit of it — for the firefighters we’ve lost, for those still battling their illnesses, and for every family who has suffered the unthinkable.”

The city’s Law Department had previously said that the city’s response reflected “what was true and accurate at the time: that DEP couldn’t locate hard copy documents.” Department spokesman Nicholas Paolucci said that has since changed and that the city was working on a schedule to produce the documents.

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