These questions will help you find out if you were or are exposed to hazardous waste site contamination. If you need help with any of these questions, please call the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services, Consumer and Environmental Health Services. Telephone numbers are at the bottom of this document.

Do I live near a hazardous waste site? Have I ever lived near one?

If you don't know the answer to this, call your local health officer, or the local health officers of cities you lived in. Their telephone numbers are in the blue pages of your telephone directory.

If you need more help in finding out about hazardous sites where you live, you can call the Department of Environmental Protection's Bureau of Community Relations program.

Did the hazardous waste stay at the site, or did some of it go off-site? For example, did any of the waste go into a stream, lake or river; or did it go into the drinking water; or did some of it go into the air?

Once you find out if you live near a site, you can also find out what government agency is in charge of its cleanup (usually the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, or the federal Environmental Protection Agency). The agency in charge usually has a Community Relations person who can give you help with this question.

If I find out that hazardous waste entered my drinking water, or that I might have come in contact with it, will it make me sick?

That would depend on what it was, and how much contact you had with it. The Community Relations person can tell you what was out there. To help you find out how much exposure you personally may have had, you can call your local health officer, the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services, Consumer and Environmental Health Services, or the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. For some hazardous waste sites there have been documents called Public Health Assessments written that have information on people's exposures to these sites. Your health officer or the Consumer and Environmental Health Services can explain how that information relates to you.

Once you know about your personal exposure to the chemicals at the hazardous waste site, your medical provider can help you figure out if you have health problems from the exposure.

What should I do if I am in contact with the waste?

Once you know where the waste is and how it might affect you, you will be better able to avoid any more exposure to it. There are many ways to avoid exposure, depending on where and what the waste is. For example, if you find out that the dirt in your yard is contaminated with lead, you can avoid exposure by planting some kind of ground cover (such as grass), or adding clean fill dirt. If your well water is contaminated, your local health officer or the Consumer and Environmental Health Services can help you find out if your water is safe to drink or to use for showering, watering your lawn, or other purposes.

If I know what the chemicals are, but don't think I have any health problems, is there information about them that I can look at before I talk to my medical care provider?

Your local health department might have what you're looking for, or the agency in charge of the site clean-up. You can also call the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services. The information which any government agency has is almost always free.

(609) 584-5367

For information on the health effects from hazardous chemicals, or on health questions on Superfund sites

(212) 637-4305

For information on health questions about Superfund sites in New Jersey

(609) 984-3081

For information on locations of hazardous waste sites, and to find out whom you can contact for more information about any of the sites

(212) 637-4391

For information on Superfund sites in New Jersey where EPA is in charge of the cleanup

Rev. 6/97
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Last Updated: October 14, 1997