Twenty-five years after September 11, 2001, more people are believed to have died from cancer, respiratory and other illnesses due to exposure to the airborne toxins than the nearly 3,000 people killed in the attacks on the World Trade Center. In the weeks and months that followed 9/11, former New York City Mayors Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg, as well as other city and federal officials, reassured residents and workers it was safe to return to the area surrounding ground zero, concealing the dangers of lingering toxins in the air after the collapse of the twin towers.
Democracy Now! co-host Juan González reads from his book, Fallout, in which he extensively reported on the toxic nightmare around ground zero. “No one could guarantee the air around Ground Zero was safe because no one had ever confronted a disaster of such proportions,” González wrote in Fallout.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.