New Season of NJ PBS’s “Hazard NJ” Podcast Explores Forever Chemicals and Their History in the Garden State

Hazard NJ is available through popular podcast platforms Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and NJPBS.org

November 18, 2024 - NEWARK, NJ - NJ PBS, New Jersey's public media network, announced its podcast series, Hazard NJ, returns for a second season November 18 on most popular podcast platforms and njpbs.org. Previously investigating New Jersey's Superfund sites, the podcast's new season finds host/journalist Jordan Gass-Poore' diving into the Garden State's history of "forever chemicals," sometimes referred to as PFAS. In the season premiere, "First a Miracle, Then a Curse," Gass-Poore' explains the birth of PFAS in a laboratory in South Jersey and their lasting legacy across the country and the world. Listen now.

"Use of PFAS has been so widespread for so long that nearly every person on the planet alive today has detectable levels of these chemicals in their blood," say Gass-Poore'. "Most people won't experience any health problems or feel any symptoms. But we should -and can -limit our exposure, and this series also explains how to do it."

It was at a DuPont laboratory in Pennsville, New Jersey in 1938 when scientists stumbled upon the chemical that would become known as Teflon. The accidental discovery became a scientific miracle, laying the groundwork for an entirely new class of incredibly durable chemicals that would be used for all sorts of purposes. But that progress came with a toxic hidden cost that has only recently become fully understood. Now, the small town where it all started is on the frontline of a global pollution crisis. Gass-Poore' interviews scientists, historians and residents who have faced generations of contamination in conjunction with exposure.

Hazard NJ  is produced by NJ PBS's newsroom, NJ Spotlight News, and available through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music  and other podcast platforms and NJPBS.org.

NJ Spotlight News is an award-winning multiplatform news organization that provides reporting from across all 21 counties in New Jersey and beyond through a weeknight newscast, NJ Spotlight News with Briana Vannozzi on NJ PBS, a robust website, social media platforms, daily newsletters and community engagement events. Learn more at NJSpotlightNews.org.