0:00

Hello, I'm Amy Westerville, and

0:02

this is this is Today we're

0:04

bringing you the first episode of

0:06

the new season of the of the new

0:08

season of the Hazard N.J. by Produced by N.J.

0:10

Spotlight News, Hazard is back for

0:12

a new season, taking

0:14

a dive into the toxic

0:16

world of of P-F-A-S. A family of

0:19

A family of thousands

0:21

of substances, often called forever

0:23

chemicals, because they're so

0:25

long -lasting. is their durability

0:27

that makes them useful for all

0:29

sorts of products and that makes

0:31

them a all to our

0:34

health. products and we'll be

0:36

back with a new episode of a threat to

0:38

our health. Enjoy and

0:40

we'll be back with a

0:43

new episode of Drilled soon.

0:45

Deep in a lab in

0:47

South Jersey, a young in

0:49

a lab in South Jersey, a

0:51

young chemist and his assistant

0:54

were conducting research. research. It

0:56

was 1938. that year, Later that

0:58

year, Superman would make

1:00

his first appearance in print, and

1:02

Orson Welles would convince people

1:04

that had had landed in New

1:06

Jersey. on April 6, But on April and

1:09

his the chemist and his assistant

1:11

weren't thinking about or Martian invasions. problem

1:13

was problem was that their experiments

1:15

with the new gas weren't

1:17

going according to plan. plan. They

1:19

had opened the valve of one

1:21

of the canisters that the the gas,

1:23

only to discover it was only to

1:25

discover it was... gone. the canister

1:27

was too heavy to be empty. to

1:30

be So So, they cut open the canister.

1:32

What What they found was a

1:35

white powder that would change the

1:37

world in unimaginable ways. ways. This

1:44

is Hazard in Jay. In In our first

1:46

season, we we reported on toxic

1:49

superfund sites around the around the how

1:51

they're impacted by climate change. This

1:54

time around, we're taking a look at

1:56

a different toxic threat. at a different

1:58

toxic threat, PFOS. called

2:00

forever chemicals. And they're in

2:03

our toilet paper, our water,

2:05

our air, and even our

2:07

blood. I'm Jordan Gaspore, an

2:10

investigative journalist from Texas. I

2:20

promised Michael, the show's producer, that

2:22

I wouldn't talk about Texas or

2:24

horror movies. But I would be

2:27

remiss if I didn't mention the

2:29

1973 cult classic, The Crazy's. The

2:31

movies about a small town that

2:34

accidentally has their water supply infected

2:36

with a virus that causes the

2:38

town's people to become homicidal. We

2:41

never thought it would happen. Nobody

2:43

gets in or out of that

2:45

town now, is that clear? The

2:48

girl just died. How do you

2:51

intend to let the people know

2:53

about all this? At least in

2:56

that case, it was pretty obvious

2:58

who had chugged a big glass

3:00

of chemicals. With Pefos, that's a

3:03

little bit harder. Okay, Michael, I

3:05

got the fictional horror talk out

3:07

of my system. Now, let's talk

3:10

about real horror. They say nothing

3:12

lasts forever, except maybe diamonds and

3:14

Pefos. So, what are Pefos? Well,

3:17

Pefos is short for, bear with

3:20

me, per and polyfluorocal substances.

3:22

There are a class of thousands

3:24

of chemicals that have been linked

3:27

to numerous health risks. There

3:29

are hundreds of studies, and I

3:31

have documented the numerous different health

3:33

effects that exposure to these

3:35

chemicals are associated with. That's Tasha

3:38

Stuyber. She's a senior scientist with

3:40

the Environmental Working Group. They're

3:42

a nonprofit that conducts research on

3:45

Pefos and other toxic substances and

3:47

advocates for stricter regulation. Stoyber

3:49

listed some of the potential side

3:51

effects of being exposed to Pefos.

3:54

There was a study that came

3:56

out that showed that Harlem was

3:59

a Pefos. blood was associated with

4:01

lower rates of fertility. So we're

4:03

just, we're seeing, you know, numerous

4:06

studies that have linked them to

4:08

different types of cancers, kidney

4:10

cancer, liver cancer, numerous studies that

4:13

have shown that the immune system

4:15

is very sensitive to these chemicals.

4:17

It can reduce your resistance to

4:20

disease, it can reduce your response

4:22

to vaccines, and also it's an

4:25

endocrine disruptor. And so the list

4:27

goes on. We're

4:29

going to talk a lot

4:31

more about health risks later

4:33

this season, but for now,

4:36

it's important to note. Just

4:38

because nearly everyone on the

4:40

planet likely has Pefos in

4:42

their body doesn't mean they'll

4:44

develop any of these conditions.

4:46

Pefos are called forever chemicals

4:49

because they break down very

4:51

slowly, if ever. They can

4:53

build up in our bodies

4:55

over time and can even

4:57

be found in animals, crops.

4:59

Shoot, they're even present in

5:02

the air and water. But

5:04

where did the chemicals come

5:06

from? Well, back to that

5:08

lab from the top of

5:10

the episode, the one in

5:12

New Jersey. It sounds like

5:15

the start of a Gothic

5:17

horror novel. Roy J. Plunkett

5:19

was a 27-year-old chemist from

5:21

Ohio. He worked at DuPont's

5:23

Chambers Works plant in deepwater

5:25

New Jersey. It was a

5:27

dream job for a poor

5:30

farm boy and good pay.

5:32

The views of the Delaware

5:34

River probably didn't hurt either.

5:36

Plunkett hadn't been at the

5:38

plant for long when he

5:40

opened up one of the

5:43

canisters, he'd filled with different

5:45

compounds of the colorless and

5:47

odorless gas, tetraphylene, or TFE.

5:49

He was trying to develop

5:51

a DuPont version of Freon.

5:53

Inside that canister, he found

5:56

a white powder that was

5:58

slightly greasy to the touch.

6:00

He was curious about the

6:02

substance. So, he rubbed the

6:04

powder between his fingers. He

6:06

sniffed it and tasted it.

6:09

He and his assistant, Jack

6:11

Rebeck, a Paul's native, discovered

6:13

the substance was slippery, like

6:15

two wet ice cubes sliding

6:17

against each other. It was

6:19

sticky, and under the right

6:22

circumstances, could be molded into

6:24

various shapes. After further testing,

6:26

they discovered it didn't break

6:28

down when exposed to heat,

6:30

electricity, and most solvents. Turns

6:32

out, that white powder was

6:35

poly tetraflora ethylene, PTFE for

6:37

short, which DuPont eventually dubbed

6:39

Teflon. It was a founding

6:41

father of the Pefos family.

6:43

This story is about a

6:45

new plastic material trademark Teflon.

6:47

It is really a tough

6:50

guy among plastics. It is

6:52

really a tough guy among

6:54

plastics. Teflon

6:56

originally didn't make waves at DuPont.

6:58

It was expensive to make, and

7:00

people at the time were too

7:02

enamored with nylon. Then came World

7:05

War II and the Manhattan Project.

7:07

Yes, the people who raced to

7:09

produce the world's first nuclear weapons.

7:11

Plunkett recalls the sudden attention Teflon

7:13

got. When the punt reviewed with

7:15

some of the Manhattan Project people,

7:17

particularly General Groves, who was director

7:19

of the Manhattan Project, He said,

7:22

he heard about this new plastic

7:24

material. He said, that sounds like

7:26

something we're going to need. And

7:28

he said, you guys better get

7:30

a hold on it and develop

7:32

it or we're going to take

7:34

it away from you. So,

7:40

DuPont quickly ramped up production

7:42

of Teflon. Scientists with the

7:44

Manhattan Project were interested in

7:46

the product because they found

7:48

it was the only coating

7:50

that could stand up to

7:52

the intense substances and processes

7:54

that are used to enrich

7:56

plutonium and uranium. The key

7:58

materials used for the first

8:00

nuclear bombs. white powder secretly

8:02

during the war. The public

8:04

didn't know about Teflon until

8:06

1946. A few years after

8:08

that, Plunkett was officially recognized

8:10

for his invention. He was

8:12

given an award for improving

8:14

the, quote, comfort, welfare, and

8:16

happiness of humankind. I'll let

8:18

him tell you the story.

8:20

When I was awarded to

8:22

John Scott Medal by the

8:25

city of Philadelphia, I was

8:27

in 51, but I didn't

8:29

receive it until June of

8:31

52, at which DuPont had

8:33

sent up a banquet and

8:35

had a couple hundred people

8:37

come to a banquet there

8:39

at the Country Club in

8:41

Pensgrove, New Jersey, and it

8:43

was the first time. that

8:45

anybody in this country saw

8:47

any cooking utensils lined with

8:49

Teflon. Because what they did

8:51

was to make up muffin

8:53

tins, lined with Teflon and

8:55

gave him out his favors

8:57

to all the attendees to

8:59

this banquet. Then,

9:03

on December 15th, 1960, DuPont released the

9:05

first Teflon-coded pots and pans at Macy's

9:07

in New York City. And get this,

9:09

they only cost $6.94 and sold out

9:11

quickly. They were every housewife's dream. Cookies

9:13

won't stick to Teflon. Pancakes won't stick

9:15

to Teflon. Hash brown potatoes won't stick

9:17

to Teflon. Meatloaf won't stick to Teflon.

9:19

Even oatmeal won't stick to Teflon. I

9:21

don't think anything sticks to Teflon. And

9:23

do you know what this means? It

9:25

means that you don't ever have to

9:27

scour cookware if it has a duPont

9:29

Teflon finish. Even burned food wipes off

9:31

quickly and easily. Until, people found out

9:34

that Teflon could be scrubbed off a

9:36

steel pan. So, DuPont improved the bonding

9:38

and made my Nana a lot happier.

9:40

At this point in time, was

9:42

off Teflon. He He

9:44

had spent a

9:46

short stint as the

9:48

the manager of Chambers

9:50

of Chamber's eventually found

9:52

his way to my

9:54

home state of

9:56

Texas to open up

9:58

a new do -pot

10:00

plant. up a new DuPont

10:02

proud of my my partner

10:04

in this development. I'm proud

10:06

of the company

10:08

with whom I worked.

10:10

I'm I'm proud of

10:12

what has happened. and

10:14

most of all, I'm

10:16

proud of all the benefit

10:18

to mankind from this

10:20

original invention. The discovery

10:22

of PTFE has been

10:24

largely described as

10:26

an example of serendipity,

10:28

a a lucky accident,

10:31

a flesh of genius. Perhaps

10:33

all three were involved. It's

10:39

been nearly a century since since

10:41

and Rubick and discovered Teflon. And

10:43

now we're stuck grappling with the

10:46

unintended consequences of that quote, flash

10:48

of genius. that quote, flash of out, out Pefos,

10:50

like the chemicals used to

10:52

make Teflon, have been found in

10:54

drinking water sources throughout New Jersey New

10:56

around the country the decades. The EPA

10:58

The EPA warned last year that

11:00

even a small amount of PFOS

11:03

found in drinking water could

11:05

be dangerous to human health. Peafos

11:13

are really good at repelling water, oil,

11:15

oil, and grease. added to a they're added

11:17

to a variety of products. is... The

11:19

The problem a The

11:21

EPA is introducing a PFAS regulation new the

11:24

first new regulation that they've introduced in

11:26

23 years. you how long it takes tells you

11:28

how long it takes to regulate something,

11:30

and they're doing it because it's such

11:32

a toxic and persistent chemical. That's That's Graham

11:34

He may be a He may be a professor

11:36

of physics at the University of Notre

11:38

Dame, but he got his start in

11:40

science in New Jersey student a student

11:42

at Princeton. These days,

11:44

and and his students hunt for in in

11:46

all sorts of everyday products, fast food from

11:48

fast food wrappers to school uniforms I bet

11:50

face masks. hard I bet you'll find

11:52

it hard to find a product we

11:54

haven't put in the beam so far. far.

12:01

It's hard to escape forever chemicals,

12:03

but Peasley is trying to help

12:05

find a way. He wants to

12:08

get rid of Peafos from non-essential

12:10

uses, like fast food packaging. Peafos

12:12

is used in this kind of

12:14

packaging to make products waterproof and

12:17

resistant to grease and stains. Peasley

12:19

and his team used a particle-induced

12:21

gamma ray emission to test for

12:24

fluorine in hundreds of fast food

12:26

wrappers from around the country. Of

12:28

the roughly 400 fast food contact

12:31

papers, paperboard containers, and cups sampled,

12:33

nearly half of the paper and

12:35

20% of the paperboard products contain

12:38

Pefos. That's alarming on its own,

12:40

but Peasley is most concerned about

12:42

what happens to fast food wrappers

12:45

once they're thrown in the trash.

12:50

And so 100% of those chemicals

12:52

on the food wrappers will come

12:54

off in 60 days in an

12:56

aerobic landfill, which means it gets

12:58

into drinking water. It passes right

13:00

through the treatment centers. The FDA

13:02

announced in February that fast food

13:04

wrappers and other food packaging made

13:06

with PFS are no longer being

13:09

sold in the US. The news

13:11

comes more than three years after

13:13

the agency reached an agreement with

13:15

manufacturers for a voluntary phase-out. But

13:17

it will take time for food

13:19

wrappers with Pefos to fully come

13:21

out of service. So, you know,

13:23

beware, they are still out there.

13:26

Stoiber, the scientists with the Environmental

13:28

Working Group, says the feds should

13:30

go farther because one can't shop

13:32

their way out of exposures, and

13:34

the exposures are going to be

13:36

different for everyone. Twelve

13:39

states have already banned or phased

13:41

out Pfos in all food packaging.

13:43

New Jersey is not one of

13:45

those states. Though a bill to

13:48

create such a ban was put

13:50

forward by lawmakers in Trenton in

13:52

2022. But so far, it hasn't

13:54

even gotten a hearing. has been

13:56

so widespread for so long that

13:58

nearly every person on the planet

14:01

alive today has detectable levels of

14:03

these chemicals in their blood. I

14:05

repeat, nearly every person on the

14:07

planet alive today has Peafas in

14:09

their blood. We're finding Peafas in

14:11

every blood sample in every blood

14:14

bank. In fact, you have to

14:16

go back to the Korean War

14:18

to find blood that didn't have

14:20

it. There's no blood left in

14:22

North America that doesn't have Peafas

14:24

in it, from cord blood to

14:27

adult blood anywhere. Now,

14:32

try not to freak out.

14:34

Most people won't experience any

14:37

health problems or feel any

14:39

symptoms. But we should, and

14:41

can, limit our exposure. Which

14:43

is where agencies like the

14:45

New Jersey Department of Environmental

14:47

Protection come in. In 2018,

14:49

New Jersey became the first

14:51

U.S. state to establish an

14:54

enforceable drinking water standard for

14:56

a Pefos chemical. But like

14:58

we said before, there's thousands

15:00

of chemicals in the Pefos

15:02

family. And New Jersey DEP

15:04

originally only focused on three

15:06

in the state's drinking water.

15:08

That number rose to six

15:11

this spring after the EPA

15:13

finalized its much stricter health

15:15

limits on Pefos and drinking

15:17

water. For some people, drinking

15:19

water is how they're exposed

15:21

to Pefos. Others, it's the

15:23

food they eat. And not

15:25

just from the wrappers. A

15:28

person who catches a fish

15:30

in a Pefos contaminated river

15:32

and then grills it for

15:34

dinner can be exposed. Rivers

15:36

and other bodies of water

15:38

can be polluted with forever

15:40

chemicals through the runoff from

15:43

industrial facilities, firefighting foam, and

15:45

landfills. And Stuyber says Pefos

15:47

builds up in our bodies

15:49

over time. Instead

15:51

of building up in our

15:53

fat, they tend to stick

15:55

to proteins in our body.

15:57

They tend to build up

15:59

in protein-rich areas in the

16:01

body. They stick to organs.

16:03

our body and they can

16:05

stick to blood and essentially

16:08

travel around our body. So

16:10

drinking water regulations are a

16:12

good start, but that's really

16:14

just the tip of the

16:16

iceberg. I have this mutation

16:18

in my P-P-P-P-O-X gene, P-P-P-P-O-X,

16:20

which inhibits the way the

16:22

heem in my blood is

16:24

made, so I can't be

16:26

in the sun. Bonnie

16:28

Smalley has been diagnosed with variegate

16:31

porphyria, a rare skin disease, and

16:33

has experienced severe dental problems. All

16:35

of this she believes to be

16:37

the result of exposure to drinking

16:40

water contaminated with Pifos and other

16:42

pollution from Chambers Works, the site

16:44

formerly owned by DuPont. So I've

16:46

lived my entire life with a

16:49

disorder that is not in my

16:51

family, that nobody picked up, that

16:53

I only picked up because I

16:55

did a DNA test. Bonnie

16:58

grew up in Pennesville, New Jersey,

17:00

a small town on the Delaware

17:02

River. She liked for the state,

17:04

or really anyone, to test the

17:06

blood of Salem County residents for

17:08

Pefos, but no testing has been

17:10

done. I just keep running into

17:12

brick walls. It would be nice

17:14

if the state helped. I would

17:16

love for the state to help,

17:18

because we've been ignored for very,

17:20

very long, and it's... People

17:23

are dying. That's what it

17:25

comes down to. People are

17:27

dying. And they're very sick.

17:29

The State Health Department acknowledged

17:32

that it has not done

17:34

any studies of Pefos impacts

17:36

in Salem County specifically, but

17:38

the department is currently conducting

17:40

a statewide study of 500

17:42

New Jerseyans to monitor their

17:44

exposure to Pefos and other

17:47

chemicals. To be clear, though,

17:49

no Salem County resident is

17:51

a part of that effort.

17:53

Data from the State Health

17:55

Department shows that cancer rates

17:57

in Salem County are higher

17:59

than rates statewide, though it

18:02

is important. note that attributing

18:04

cancer to a single cause

18:06

is almost impossible. Body's family

18:08

goes back generations in Pennesville.

18:10

My uncle Ken designed the

18:12

town seal for the township

18:15

of Pennesville and there is

18:17

a chemical beaker in our

18:19

town seal. just up the

18:21

road from Bonnie's childhood home,

18:23

is the place where Plunkett

18:25

and his assistant discovered one

18:27

of the first peafoss chemicals

18:30

while working at DuPont's Chamber's

18:32

Works plant. Chamber's Works has

18:34

a storied place in the

18:36

history of America's chemical industry.

18:38

DuPont began using the facility

18:40

in 1892 to make gun

18:43

powder. By the 1920s, the

18:45

company had begun making dies

18:47

and refrigerants at the site.

18:49

Throughout its history, Chamber's works

18:51

has been home to all

18:53

sorts of chemical production. Historian

18:55

Lucas Klausen, who works at

18:58

the Hagley Museum in Delaware

19:00

and studies the history of

19:02

DuPont, described the operation as

19:04

an economic powerhouse for the

19:06

region. there were thousands of

19:08

people employed there at one

19:11

point. And that's everybody from

19:13

people in administration, people that

19:15

worked in the research facilities,

19:17

people in powder production, down

19:19

to like Teamsters, your stevedores,

19:21

the shipping for all the

19:23

maritime stuff that came and

19:26

went because they had their

19:28

own port essentially there at

19:30

the deep water facility. So

19:32

you've got thousands of people

19:34

who are employed directly or

19:36

indirectly in Salem County as

19:39

a result of this facility.

19:41

DuPont eventually moved its Teflon

19:43

manufacturing to the company's Arlington

19:45

facility in North Jersey, and

19:47

then to its Washington Works

19:49

plant in West Virginia. It

19:51

was in West Virginia, where

19:54

widespread pollution from the work

19:56

eventually became the grounds for

19:58

a landmark settlement in 2017.

20:00

DuPont agreed to pay more

20:02

than $670 million to more

20:04

than 3,500 affected plaintiffs. The

20:07

2019 movie Dark Waters is

20:09

based on the West Virginia

20:11

case. They're hiding something. That

20:13

chemical. What if you drank

20:15

it? Drink it? It's like

20:17

saying, what if I swallowed

20:19

a tire? What if whatever's

20:22

killing those cows is in

20:24

the drinking water? But

20:27

even after DuPont moved Teflon

20:30

production elsewhere, the company made

20:32

sure Pefos remained in Salem

20:34

County. DuPont imported the chemical

20:36

for floral octanoic acid, or

20:39

simply PFOA, and other Pefos,

20:41

to Chambers Works for decades,

20:43

starting in the 1950s. The

20:46

chemicals were used to manufacture

20:48

Teflon and other products at

20:50

the site. Meanwhile, Chamber's works

20:53

became a large waste handling

20:55

site, with massive landfills and

20:57

a wastewater treatment plant meant

20:59

to deal with hazardous materials.

21:02

Pifos laden waste from around

21:04

the country, including from the

21:06

infamous West Virginia plant, was

21:09

shipped to Salem County. Locals

21:11

like Bonnie's dad hauled that

21:13

waste to the plant. I

21:22

went with Bonnie and her mom on

21:24

a driving tour of the patchwork of

21:26

small towns in Salem County that surround

21:29

the Chambers Works site. And this is

21:31

what most people know as Pennsylvania because

21:33

they're just passing through. Yeah. Because you've

21:36

got 95, you've got the term pike,

21:38

it's heading to the Delaware Bridge. Bonnie,

21:40

39, has done her homework. She stays

21:43

on top of all things Chambers Works

21:45

and runs the WTF DuPont Facebook page.

21:48

As we drove around, Bonnie

21:51

and her mom pointed out

21:53

the YMCA, Country Club, Elementary

21:55

School, Park, and neighborhoods that

21:57

made up DuPont's Company Town.

22:00

city, where the streets are

22:02

named after, you guessed it,

22:05

letters of the alphabet, A,

22:07

B, C, D, each lined

22:09

with identical one-story homes. As

22:11

the plant grew, they just

22:13

kept building places for them

22:15

to live. People still live

22:17

in these homes, whether or

22:19

not they know the area's

22:22

history. And it's hard to

22:24

remember what life was like

22:26

when Chamber's works was where

22:28

most people worked. When I

22:30

was growing up, if your

22:32

parents worked for DuPont, you

22:34

had money. You were more

22:36

affluent than other people. Many

22:39

of the people who worked

22:41

there, whose loyalty to DuPont

22:43

went unquestioned, are gone. DuPont

22:45

stopped producing explosives and dies

22:47

at the site by the

22:49

early 1980s. but the chemical

22:51

production remained. Even after DuPont

22:53

gave up Chambers Works in

22:56

the 2015 corporate spin-off that

22:58

created a new company, Comores.

23:00

Today, Comores continues that work

23:02

and continues using PFOS as

23:04

part of it. The company

23:06

specifically uses GenX Chemicals, which

23:08

DuPont introduced as a substitute

23:10

for PFOA more than a

23:13

decade ago. The

23:15

Gen X chemicals are intended to

23:17

be less dangerous to human health

23:19

in the environment, but much is

23:22

still unknown about the health effects

23:24

of these chemicals, though many experts

23:26

expect they will be similar to

23:28

other pfasts like PFOA. These days,

23:30

much of the original Chambers Works

23:33

plant is gone, and once left

23:35

of the roughly two-square-mile area is

23:37

mostly abandoned. They systematically have destroyed

23:39

the plant. There's very little left

23:42

back there. And I don't think

23:44

there's been a lot of explanation

23:46

as to why that happened. I

23:48

did see people checking the monitoring

23:50

wells that surround the plant, but

23:53

there was no longer the hustle

23:55

and bustle that once was. Comores

23:57

is also monitoring off-site drinking water

23:59

wells for Pefos contamination. company has

24:02

pledged to provide bottled water to

24:04

households with tainted wells until the

24:06

company is able to either connect

24:08

homes to a local water system

24:10

or install a filter on the

24:13

well that is able to handle

24:15

Pefos. It's a program that DuPont

24:17

started in 2009, and Comores continues

24:19

today. As of April, 229 have

24:22

been installed at homes in four

24:24

towns, including Pennsylvania. Pennsville

24:28

and Kearney's point aren't the company

24:30

towns they used to be. Bonnie's

24:32

grandfather worked at Chambers Works, her

24:34

dad worked at Chambers Works. It

24:37

took three generations of a good,

24:39

regular paycheck for people to realize

24:41

the price they paid for more

24:43

than a century of doing DuPont's

24:46

bidding. They're now fighting back. In

24:48

2016, Kearney's Point brought a lawsuit

24:50

against DuPont and Comores. Residents are

24:53

holding the companies responsible for dumping

24:55

100 million pounds of chemical waste

24:57

into the area's soil and water

24:59

over the plant's history. We've

25:02

been drinking it. We're sick. You

25:04

need to do something about it.

25:07

That's a story that's being replicated

25:09

throughout the United States and around

25:11

the world to the point where

25:13

a company like DuPont and Comores

25:16

has been sued a thousand times

25:18

with lawsuits coming in every day.

25:20

That's Al Telsey. He's leading Kearney's

25:23

point in a billion dollar lawsuit

25:25

against DuPont. Telsi grew up

25:27

in Salem County. We met him

25:29

at the Bloomer, Diner, and Pinsville

25:31

to talk about the case. So

25:33

now we are just one of

25:35

many people clamoring for justice. You

25:37

know, the company town mentality is

25:39

a thing of the past. It's

25:41

in the chapter of the history

25:44

book that just isn't the presence.

25:46

Basically, he argues that in the

25:49

process of DuPont spinning off commours,

25:51

the two companies repeatedly broke state

25:53

law by failing to either clean

25:55

up chambers works or set aside

25:58

enough money for state and local

26:00

authorities to do cleanup themselves. That

26:02

lawsuit remains ongoing, more than six

26:04

years after it was filed. And

26:06

it's not just Kearney's point that

26:09

wants polluters to pay up. The

26:11

state sued DuPont and Camores in

26:13

2019 for natural resource damages caused

26:15

by the company's actions at Chambers

26:18

Works. That case also remains ongoing.

26:24

For now, life goes on in

26:26

Salem County. Camores has a billboard

26:28

up on the north side of

26:30

the New Jersey End of the

26:32

Delaware Memorial Bridge to catch the

26:34

eye of any driver who might

26:36

have been gazing at the Chamber's

26:38

work plant below. In January, it

26:40

read, Camores makes the world work!

26:45

Pefos. They're the chemicals found

26:47

in nearly everyone. What was

26:49

once considered a housewife's best

26:51

friend has turned into public

26:53

enemy number one, and for

26:56

good reason. This season of

26:58

Hazard and Jay, we're serving

27:00

up the toxic truth about

27:02

Pefos in New Jersey's water,

27:04

one glass at a time.

27:06

On episode two, we look

27:08

at how Pefos are fueling

27:10

a public health crisis. Hazard

27:16

NJ Spotlight News Production. You can

27:18

support our reporting by heading to

27:20

nj spotlight news.org/donate. The show is

27:22

written, edited, and hosted by me,

27:25

Jordan Goss Pore. Michael Saul Warren

27:27

contributed reporting. He also co-wrote and

27:29

produced all episodes. James Craft is

27:31

the executive producer within Jay Spotlight

27:34

News. Our executive in charge of

27:36

production is Joe Lee. Chloe Matissi

27:38

is our production manager. Additional research

27:40

was done by Judah Duke. Our

27:43

sound designer and engineer is Mark

27:45

Bush. Music for Hazard in Jay

27:47

was composed by Nick Pennington. Artwork

27:49

by Matthew Fleming. Special thanks to

27:51

the Science History Institute in Philadelphia.

27:54

providing the oral

27:56

history interview of

27:58

oral Plunkett. Arrow

28:00

films for the

28:03

use of of DuPont

28:05

Hagley Library for

28:07

the Teflon -related audio

28:09

clips. Arrow

28:12

Films for the

28:14

use of the

28:16

Crazy's trailer and

28:19

the Hagley Library

28:21

for the Teflon

28:24

related audio clips.

28:36

clips. watching!