NEW YORK — Former New York Gov. George Pataki, who led the state through the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and their aftermath, told the New York Post he has restrictive airway disease linked to his time at Ground Zero — a diagnosis he had not previously disclosed publicly, days before the attacks’ 25th anniversary.

Pataki, a Republican who served from 1995 to 2006, said he was diagnosed over the last five years. “I just look at it as I’m one of the lucky ones,” he told the Post. “You know, 25 years later, I feel great. I have this minor residual impact from that time. But compared to so many others, I consider myself very lucky.”

Restrictive airway disease associated with World Trade Center dust makes ordinary respiratory illnesses more dangerous. A representative for former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani confirmed to the Post that Giuliani has also been diagnosed with the same condition after a critical pneumonia hospitalization earlier this year.

Pataki said he has not been diagnosed with Ground Zero–related cancer and stressed first responders’ heavier burden: “The people who were with me at Ground Zero over and over for months after those attacks, many of them have serious illnesses, far more serious than anything I might be experiencing.”

The interview also touched the coming Friday ceremony. Pataki urged Mayor Zohran Mamdani to stay away unless he condemns the slogan “globalize the intifada” and breaks with commentators who have praised the attacks, while saying the remembrance itself “should go off without any disruption.”

Sources