Pitta & Baione LLP marks 25 years since EPA told New Yorkers the air was safe to breathe
New York, NY, Sept. 18, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Twenty-five years ago today, only one week after the Sept. 11
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New York, NY, Sept. 18, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Twenty-five years ago today, only one week after the Sept. 11 attacks, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a news release notifying New Yorkers that the air around ground zero was safe to breathe. A 2003 audit by the agency’s own Office of Inspector General later found the EPA did not have the data to support that statement.
Pitta & Baione LLP, which represents responders, survivors and their families in claims before the World Trade Center Health Program and the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, is marking the anniversary to raise awareness among people who were exposed to 9/11 toxins and may still be unaware they qualify for federally funded health care and compensation.
On Sept. 18, 2001, then-Environmental Protection Agency Administrator and former New Jersey Governor Christie Whitman announced that monitoring showed the public was not being exposed to dangerous levels of contaminants, saying she was glad to reassure the people of New York and Washington that their air was safe to breathe and their water safe to drink. The statement became the government’s official message and was widely repeated as office workers, teachers, students and residents returned to lower Manhattan.
What the EPA Inspector General found
In an August 2003 report, the Office of Inspector General found the agency “did not have sufficient data and analyses to make such a blanket statement” when it issued the Sept. 18 announcement. At the time of the agency’s reassurance, monitoring results were not yet available for a number of contaminants of concern, and test sampling for several known pollutants had barely begun.
The report also found that the White House Council on Environmental Quality “influenced…the information that the Environmental Protection Agency communicated to the public through its early news releases when it convinced the Environmental Protection Agency to add reassuring statements and delete cautionary ones.” Guidance advising residents to have their homes professionally cleaned, along with language expressing concern for sensitive populations, was softened or removed before publication.
The health toll
The materials that settled across lower Manhattan included asbestos, lead, glass fibers, and pulverized concrete exposures now definitively linked to dozens of cancers and respiratory conditions. The air contamination persisted for months.
The World Trade Center Health Program’s total lifetime enrollment is now over 154,700, and it has certified more than 57,000 cancer cases connected to 9/11 exposure.
Records release
On September 8, 2026, the administration of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani released more than 170,000 pages of city records related to the post-9/11 air quality around the World Trade Center site. The documents, drawn from agency files, including those in storage boxes only recently discovered, address what officials knew in 2001 about hazards in lower Manhattan and when they knew it.
“September 11 is seared into the nation’s memory. September 18 has no memorial and no moment of silence,” said author Spencer Ackerman. That silence is why so many people who were exposed still don’t connect their illnesses to 9/11, and why so many have never filed for or claimed the benefits for which they are eligible and which they are owed. Twenty-five years later, the health toll is still climbing, but help is available.
Eligibility
People who lived, worked, attended school or day care, or were otherwise present in Manhattan south of Houston Street may be eligible for federally funded medical monitoring and treatment, depending on when, where, and how long they were there.
“Sometimes eligible claimants feel like, ‘I wasn’t a firefighter, I shouldn’t be eligible for this.’ But guess what the firefighters are telling you. The firefighters union is saying, ‘Yes, it’s for us, but it’s also for all affected New Yorkers, and everyone nationwide who might be fighting the same illnesses as we are,” noted Pitta & Baione LLP Partner Matthew Baione.
Two programs created by the Zadroga Act are funded through calendar year 2090: the World Trade Center Health Program, which provides medical monitoring, treatment and medication for certified conditions at no cost, and the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, which provides compensation for physical illnesses, injuries and deaths related to 9/11 exposure.
Eligibility information is available directly from the World Trade Center Health Program at cdc.gov/wtc and the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund at vcf.gov.
About Pitta & Baione LLP
Pitta & Baione LLP represents first and secondary responders, survivors, and family members and beneficiaries of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in matters involving the World Trade Center Health Program and claims before the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund. Learn more at 911benefits.com.
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