We have 3,000 other hazardous waste sites. We have an immense chemical industry, and we have a very high incidence of environmentally related diseases.
New Jersey is number one in the country in breast cancer mortality.
Since its creation a decade ago, the New Jersey-based EHS center has emerged as a potent force in environmental health research. Scientists at this center made the surprising discovery that dioxins, which are liver carcinogens in animals, are also powerful inhibitors of breast cancer. Chromium contamination studies in Jersey City have helped shape federal and state clean-up and risk policies for the metal. And the detection of lead in the printing on plastic bread wrappers, which some people turn inside out and use as sandwich bags, prompted the industry to quickly get the lead out. The center received its first funding in 1987.