On 25th anniversary of 9/11, New York remembers victims poisoned by debris

On 11 September 2001, Al-Qaeda hijackers seized control of two planes that struck the two World Trade Center towers in downtown New York City.

A third hijacked jet smashed into the Pentagon, and a fourth plane that appeared to be headed for the US Capitol or the White House crashed in woodland near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers fought back and seized control.

The attacks claimed the lives of 2,977 people, mostly in the collapse of the Twin Towers on the site now known as Ground Zero.

But in the last 25 years, thousands of people who escaped or participated in rescue operations have developed serious illnesses associated with exposure to toxic dust and debris.

Seventh silence

More than 9,400 have died from illnesses linked to their exposure to contaminated air at or near Ground Zero, the Pentagon and related sites, according to a federal medical monitoring programme.

It is with these people in mind that organisers at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum have added a seventh moment of silence to the annual ceremony on Friday.

Previous commemorations have featured six moments of silence corresponding to the times the four planes hit and the moment each tower fell.

The new observance will occur after the reading of the victims' names and is intended to recognise others who were affected in the years after the attacks, including firefighters, police officers, construction workers, volunteers, local residents, office workers and students. Police, firemen and a civilian carry the body of New York City Fire Department chaplain Mychal Judge after he was killed in the collapse of the south tower at the World Trade Center in New York, 11 September 2001.

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New disclosures

This year's commemorations coincide with the release of tens of thousands of documents showing New York City officials did not disclose all they knew about air toxicity after 9/11.

"These are documents that show what the city knew about the toxic air around Ground Zero, when they knew it, and how they acted to limit liability," New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani told a news conference on Tuesday.

The release of the 170,000 pages of documents is part of an agreement with 9/11 Health Watch, a victims' advocacy group that had taken legal action to compel the city to make the documents public. More are due to be published online over the next 12 months.

"For 25 years, four different mayoral administrations kept from the public, the US Congress and the city council documents showing what the city actually knew about the danger of the toxic chemicals in lower Manhattan and western Brooklyn after the World Trade Center collapse, even as city officials continued messaging to the public that the air was 'safe and acceptable'," the group's director, Benjamin Chevat, said in a statement.

The documents stand to implicate two former New York mayors: Rudy Giuliani, in office at the time of the attacks, and Michael Bloomberg, mayor from January 2002 to December 2013.

"This goes across a multitude of those that New Yorkers have trusted," Mamdani said. "People got sick because the leaders they trusted lied and told them they were safe to breathe in toxic air." Firemen work in the remains of the World Trade Center, 11 September 2001.

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Trump stays in DC

As well as the official ceremony for the victims, other commemorations are taking place in New York and other venues.

They include the Tribute in Light: two beams of light representing the Twin Towers, which will illuminate the New York skyline from dusk on 11 September until dawn on 12 September.

Breaking with tradition, US President Donald Trump will pay his respects on Friday at the Pentagon in Washington rather than Ground Zero. Instead, Vice-President JD Vance will attend the New York ceremony.

Trump's four living predecessors – Democrats Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, as well as Republican George W Bush, who was president at the time of the attacks – are all expected at Ground Zero.

(with newswires)