New York City's newly released 9/11 records show that asbestos lingered in Lower Manhattan for months while officials weighed their own liability. Twenty-five years later, the latency clock for asbestos-related cancer is only now reaching its peak.

Three days before the 25th anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center, New York City opened its files. On September 8, 2026, Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced the release of approximately 170,000 pages of City records through a new public 9/11 Document Portal, settling two lawsuits brought by the advocacy group 9/11 Health Watch. The first tranche includes the long-sought Harding Memo, the "68 boxes" of records that the City did not locate until 2025 despite repeated Freedom of Information Law requests, and records concerning World Trade Center 7. The Law Department will continue releasing records over the next 12 months.

For the workers' compensation community, the most consequential line in the announcement is not about history. The City will assign dedicated personnel at the Department of Citywide Administrative Services and New York City Public Schools to help people retrieve records that establish their presence in the New York City exposure zone, so they can access the World Trade Center Health Program and the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund. Proof of presence and proof of exposure are the foundation of every 9/11 occupational disease claim. Both just became easier to establish.

What the Records Show

The centerpiece is the Harding Memo, an October 2001 memorandum prepared for Deputy Mayor Robert Harding. According to reporting by Bloomberg published in Claims Journal, it estimated that the City could face 35,000 potential plaintiffs and contemplated seeking federal protection from "toxic tort cases that might arise in the next few decades." A May 2002 City document described avoiding the word "risk" in correspondence about a cleanup program so as not to undermine public confidence. Within weeks of the attack, in other words, City lawyers were forecasting long-latency toxic exposure claims while the public was being told the air was safe.

The records also show that the hazard did not end when the fires went out. ABC News reported that one document confirms asbestos on the facade ledge of 15 John Street, away from Ground Zero, in July 2002. According to the Daily Caller News Foundation, an August 2002 environmental analysis of Stuyvesant High School, about half a mile from the site, detected asbestos more than a year after the collapse, and students had been scheduled to return on October 8, 2001, four days after testing began. Mayor Mamdani said the records show inspectors found asbestos nearly everywhere they tested, and Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal noted in the Mayor's announcement that responders were exposed to dust and smoke containing more than 2,500 contaminants.

The Mayor put the point bluntly at the release, as reported by ABC News: "People got sick because the leaders they trusted lied." The portal does not itself adjudicate liability. It does supply dated, agency-generated evidence of where contamination was found and when, which is precisely the evidence occupational disease claims have lacked.

Who Was Exposed at Work

The CDC estimates that more than 400,000 people were affected by the 9/11 exposures and may be eligible for the World Trade Center Health Program, which as of March 31, 2026, had enrolled more than 143,000 members, including more than 88,000 responders and more than 55,000 survivors. The occupational population is broad. It includes firefighters, police officers, EMS personnel, sanitation workers, and building trades who worked the pile and the barges; morgue and landfill workers at Fresh Kills; and paid workers and volunteers in cleanup operations that ran through 2002.

The new documents extend the exposure picture to workers who were never on the pile at all. Teachers, custodians, and school staff returned to buildings like Stuyvesant while testing was underway. Building service workers, office cleaners, and asbestos abatement crews worked in buildings such as 15 John Street where asbestos remained on exterior surfaces months after the attack. Office workers were sent back to Lower Manhattan under public assurances of safety. Each of these workers had an occupational exposure, and each may now have documentary proof of it.

Latency: Why 2026 Is the Beginning, Not the End

Asbestos-related disease is defined by delay. The World Trade Center Health Program's Minimum Latency & Types or Categories of Cancer policy, most recently revised March 31, 2025, sets the minimum time that must pass between initial 9/11 exposure and diagnosis before a cancer can be certified: 11 years for mesothelioma; 4 years for solid cancers; 0.4 years (146 days) for lymphoproliferative and hematopoietic cancers such as leukemia, lymphoma, and multiple myeloma; 2.5 years for thyroid cancer; and 1 year for childhood cancers. Since January 18, 2023, all types of cancer have been on the Program's list of WTC-related health conditions.

Minimum latency is only the floor. The same policy relies on a review of 1,105 occupational mesothelioma cases that reported a median latency of 32 years, with 96 percent of cases diagnosed at least 20 years after first exposure and a third diagnosed 40 years out. The policy also notes that chrysotile was the only asbestos form identified in settled dust samples in the New York City disaster area. Applied to exposures that began in September 2001, the arithmetic is sobering: the median mesothelioma diagnosis for this population is still years away, and the long tail of the curve extends past 2040.

The malignancies are only part of the burden. Certified conditions include aerodigestive disorders such as asthma, chronic rhinosinusitis, and gastroesophageal reflux, along with mental health conditions and musculoskeletal injuries among responders. For compensation purposes, however, the late-emerging cancers are the claims most likely to arrive after witnesses, employers, and records have scattered, which is why the documentary record released this week matters so much.

Why the Records Matter for Compensation Claims

Presence, exposure, and the Article 8-A elements
New York's Workers' Compensation Law Article 8-A covers paid workers and volunteers who participated in rescue, recovery, or cleanup operations. To qualify, a claimant must establish three elements relating to time, location, and activity, as the Appellate Division explained in Matter of Williams v. City of New York, 66 A.D.3d 1203 (3d Dep't 2009). The court has also held that Article 8-A is to be liberally construed because it was enacted to remove obstacles to timely filing for latent conditions, and in Matter of Hazan v. WTC Volunteer Fund, 120 A.D.3d 82 (3d Dep't 2014), it rejected the Board's attempt to require that a volunteer have served under an authorized rescue agency. The portal, and the City personnel assigned to help claimants retrieve records, go directly to the time and location elements that the Williams test demands.
The WTC-12 deadline moved to 2030
Today, September 11, 2026, would have been the last day to file a Form WTC-12 registration of participation. On September 10, 2026, Governor Kathy Hochul signed A.11531/S.10605, which extends the deadline to September 11, 2030. The law also requires the Workers' Compensation Board to reconsider claims by workers who became disabled between September 11, 2021, and September 11, 2025, that were disallowed because of the deadline, and it extends the time to file new claims for that window to September 11, 2030. The Board's World Trade Center assistance page now reflects the 2030 date.
The Form WTC-12 is a registration, not a claim. It should be filed by anyone who worked or volunteered at Ground Zero, the Fresh Kills Landfill, the barges, the piers, or the morgues between September 11, 2001, and September 12, 2002, whether or not the person is sick today. The same package extended the National Guard death and disability deadline to 2030 (A.11538/S.10650) and extended the retirement-system presumption window for WTC-related deaths from 25 to as many as 35 years after retirement (A.11213A/S.10085A). These changes build on the 2022 legislation (S.9370/A.9922A)that created a presumption of compensability for any health impairment or death of workers who participated in the rescue, recovery, and cleanup operations.
Workers outside Article 8-A
Article 8-A is tied to specific sites and a fixed operational window. The teacher who returned to a contaminated school, the porter who cleaned a Lower Manhattan office tower in 2002, and the abatement worker on a downtown facade may fall outside it. Their claims proceed under New York's general occupational disease rules, which require proof of an occupational exposure and a causal link and which run the limitations period from disablement and the worker's knowledge that the condition was work-related. The newly released records help on both fronts. They document where asbestos was found and when, and they explain why workers who were told the air was safe could not reasonably have known that a later diagnosis was tied to their jobs.
Concealment, exclusivity, and the limits of tort
The Harding Memo will fuel calls for accountability, but practitioners should be realistic about the civil courts. For City employees, workers' compensation remains the exclusive remedy against the employer except for deliberate intent to injure. In Acevedo v. Consolidated Edison Co. of N.Y., 189 A.D.2d 497 (1st Dep't 1993), the Appellate Division held that an employer's knowing exposure of workers to asbestos did not meet that standard. Federal claims have fared no better. In Lombardi v. Whitman, 485 F.3d 73 (2d Cir. 2007), the Second Circuit rejected substantive due process claims by rescue and cleanup workers who alleged that federal officials issued knowingly false reassurances about air quality, and in Benzman v. Whitman, 523 F.3d 119 (2d Cir. 2008), it dismissed similar claims brought by Lower Manhattan residents and workers.
The practical consequence is that the compensation system, the World Trade Center Health Program, and the Victim Compensation Fund remain the principal remedies for most exposed workers. The documents do not reopen the courthouse door so much as strengthen the evidentiary record in the forums that are already open.

Coordinating with the Victim Compensation Fund

The September 11th Victim Compensation Fund accepts claims until October 1, 2090, and its collateral offset rules treat workers' compensation benefits as collateral source payments that must be reported, including payments that begin after an award is made. A claimant who reports a new or changed entitlement within 90 days of learning of it will not have a prior award adjusted; later reports can reduce the award. Counsel handling a compensation claim for a 9/11 condition should coordinate the timing and reporting of benefits across both systems from the outset.

New Jersey responders

Thousands of New Jersey police officers, firefighters, and volunteers worked at Ground Zero. In 2019, Governor Phil Murphy signed the Thomas P. Canzanella Twenty First Century First Responders Protection Act, creating a rebuttable presumption of compensability for public safety workers, together with the Bill Ricci World Trade Center Rescue, Recovery, and Cleanup Operations Act, which opened accidental disability retirement to 9/11 volunteers. Pending Senate Bill S1379, reported from committee on February 5, 2026, would presume compensability for New Jersey public safety workers enrolled in the World Trade Center Health Program regardless of when they file, with a two-year filing window after enactment. Where a New Jersey employer knowingly concealed a diagnosed occupational disease and allowed it to worsen, Millison v. E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., 101 N.J. 161 (1985), permits a separate action for the aggravation.

The Bottom Line

Twenty-five years after the towers fell, the City has finally produced records that its own lawyers expected to matter for decades. They show asbestos persisting in Lower Manhattan well into 2002 and officials weighing liability while reassuring the public. For injured workers and their families, the records supply proof of presence and exposure, support causation for latent cancers, and arrive just as the latency curve for asbestos disease approaches its peak. For employers, insurers, and the public programs that share this burden, these records remind us that the claims from September 11 are not behind us. Register now, preserve the records, and plan for a long tail.

Sources

1. City of New York, 9/11 Document Portal.

2. NYC Mayor's Office, "25 Years Later, Mamdani Administration Opens City's 9/11 Records to the Public and Settles Multi-Year Legal Battle" (Sept. 8, 2026).

3. Ivan Pereira, Aaron Katersky, and Mark Crudele, "NYC Mayor Mamdani releases thousands of long-sought city documents on 9/11 air quality", ABC News (Sept. 8, 2026).

4. Myles Miller, "NYC Officials Feared Liability Over Toxic Air After 9/11 Attacks", Claims Journal (Bloomberg) (Sept. 9, 2026).

5. Emily Kopp, "Read The Secret Documents About 9/11 Toxic Exposure New York Officials Tried To Cover Up", Daily Caller News Foundation (Sept. 8, 2026).

6. World Trade Center Health Program, Minimum Latency & Types or Categories of Cancer (rev. Mar. 31, 2025).

7. World Trade Center Health Program, About the Program (statistics as of Mar. 31, 2026).

8. Chris Boyle, "Governor Hochul Signs Legislation To Support 9/11 Victims, Responders, New York's National Guard And Their Loved Ones", LongIsland.com (Sept. 10, 2026).

9. New York State Workers' Compensation Board, World Trade Center Assistance.

10. New York State Workers' Compensation Board, Form WTC-12.

11. Office of Governor Kathy Hochul, "Governor Hochul Signs Legislation to Support 9/11 Victims, First Responders, and Their Loved Ones" (Sept. 9, 2022).

12. September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, Collateral Offset Update Form (updated Feb. 2026).

13. Office of Governor Phil Murphy, "Governor Murphy Signs Legislation to Protect First Responders, Including 9/11 Volunteers" (July 8, 2019).

14. New Jersey Senate Bill S1379 (2026-2027 Session), LegiPlex bill summary.

15. Matter of Williams v. City of New York, 66 A.D.3d 1203 (3d Dep't 2009).

16. Matter of Hazan v. WTC Volunteer Fund, 120 A.D.3d 82 (3d Dep't 2014).

17. Acevedo v. Consolidated Edison Co. of N.Y., 189 A.D.2d 497 (1st Dep't 1993).

18. Lombardi v. Whitman, 485 F.3d 73 (2d Cir. 2007).

19. Benzman v. Whitman, 523 F.3d 119 (2d Cir. 2008).

20. Millison v. E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., 101 N.J. 161 (1985).

Recommended Citation

Jon L. Gelman, The Dust Never Settled, Workers' Compensation (workers-compensation.blogspot.com) (Sept. 11, 2026), https://workers-compensation.blogspot.com/2026/09/the-dust-never-settled.html