Thursday, October 1, 2026
For years, Phil Alvarez and his family have fought to uncover what New York City officials knew about the health dangers surrounding Ground Zero in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
That effort has now resulted in the release of 170,000 pages of city records, unsealed by officials on Sept. 8, including documents concerning air quality, health concerns and the city’s response to the attacks.
For Alvarez, the release represents more than a legal victory. It is another chapter in the legacy of his brother, NYPD Detective Luis G. Alvarez, a retired Bomb Squad detective from Oceanside who became one of the nation’s most prominent advocates for 9/11 responders and survivors before his death from cancer in 2019.
On the morning of Sept. 8, Alvarez joined fellow 9/11 advocates at New York City Hall, where the City of New York settled a lawsuit filed on behalf of 9/11 families, including the Alvarez family.
The legal battle began with a Freedom of Information Law request filed Sept. 2023. Alvarez was among those named in the request, representing his late brother. The request sought extensive city records concerning what the former-Mayor Rudy Guiliani’s administration knew about toxins, air quality and potential health risks at Ground Zero, as well as records concerning the city’s response in the aftermath of the attacks.
“For a long time, first responders and 9/11 victims suffering from illnesses from the exposure down at Ground Zero had been wondering exactly what the city knew about it,” Alvarez said.
He pointed to research into the long-term health effects as an example of why access to historical records remains important. “It’s things like that that led our families to file Freedom of Information requests from the city,” Alvarez said.
But the records did not come easily.
“Those requests had gone unanswered, or they said, ‘We don’t have anything,’” Alvarez said. “Historically, it came out that they did, in fact, have this information.”
In June 2024, 9/11 Health Watch — an independent advocacy group that tracks and protects health and compensation programs for Sept. 11 victims and survivors — formally filed an Article 78 proceeding in New York State Supreme Court in New York County against the city. An Article 78 proceeding challenges an unfair decision, action or inaction by a government agency or public official.
The case was brought with the assistance of pro bono attorneys Matthew McCauley of Turken Health & McCauley LLP and Andrew J. Carboy.
The lawsuit followed the city’s failure to produce records that advocates had sought through the FOIL request, including after city agencies had indicated documents could not be located.
9/11 Health Watch publicly announced the lawsuit four days later.
According to Alvarez, the attorneys investigated whether records the city said did not exist could be located.
“They were ferocious about doing investigations to find out if there were emails out there,” he said. “Turns out, they eventually found boxes upon boxes of information that existed.”
The discovery of those records became a critical development in the case.
At the end of May 2026, New York Supreme Court Judge James G. Clynes ruled in favor of 9/11 Health Watch, finding the city’s actions in the records dispute were “arbitrary and capricious.” The legal battle culminated just ahead of the 25th anniversary of the attacks, when the city announced the settlement and unveiled a public portal containing 170,000 pages of records.
The release includes the October 2001 memorandum known as the Harding memo — previously undisclosed 68 boxes of records and documents concerning World Trade Center 7. The city said the portal will be updated as additional records are reviewed and personally identifiable information is removed.
“The very least our city owes the families, survivors and first responders whose lives were forever changed by the September 11th attacks is transparency and accountability,” New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said. “…For too long, New Yorkers have had to fight for access to records that should have been available to them in the first place.”
Mamdani also noted that toxic air quality and asbestos was found “nearly everywhere” at Ground Zero. “People got sick because the leaders they trusted lied and told them they were safe to breathe in toxic air,” he said.
The portal allows the public to search the records, potentially giving researchers, families and members of the public access to information that has remained difficult to obtain for decades.
“We hope that it will help generations to come,” Alvarez said. “We hope that it will help health programs, researchers, doctors, experts, to continue to treat these first responders and survivors and those suffering from 9/11 illnesses.
That work carries particular significance for Alvarez because of his brother.
Luis Alvarez, a former U.S. Marine, joined the NYPD in 1990 and was promoted to detective in 1995. As a member of the Bomb Squad, he was involved in rescue and recovery work following the World Trade Center attacks. He eventually retired in 2010 because of illnesses related to his work at Ground Zero and died June 29, 2019, at 53. His death was deemed in the line of duty by the NYPD and the New York City Police Pension Fund.
In the final months of his life, Luis became a powerful public advocate for 9/11 responders and survivors. His testimony before Congress, alongside activist and comedian Jon Stewart, helped rally support for permanently extending the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund.
The resulting legislation was named the “Never Forget the Heroes: James Zadroga, Ray Pfeifer, and Luis Alvarez Permanent Authorization of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund Act,” providing funding through 2092.
His legacy has continued to be honored through a street renaming in Long Island City, an NYPD K-9 named after him and a memorial park on Terrell Avenue in Oceanside.
“It was about community for Lou,” Alvarez said. “The responsibility to care for everyone who answered the call and everyone that was affected by it.”
That responsibility, he said, extends beyond those who were physically present at Ground Zero.
“You didn’t have to be at Ground Zero to be affected by this horrible day 25 years ago,” Alvarez said. “People from all over the country, people from all over the world were in those towers. That spirit — and the responsibility to care for everyone who answered the call and everyone affected by 9/11 — is what this fight has always been about.”
