also tonight Garden State officials are calling on the federal government to create new protections from Forever chemicals polluting the air the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection along with counterparts in North Carolina and New Mexico petitioned the US Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday to list four chemicals as hazardous under the federal Clean Air Act those chemicals pfoa pfos pfna and Gen X are among the most common members of the PFAS family they've long been used in all sorts of products but the same properties that make the chemicals useful to Industry also make them impossible to break down naturally PFAS have been linked to serious health effects in humans State leaders have for years trying to address past pollution which is widespread here dozens of drinking water systems around the state have been found to have high levels of the chemicals in recent years air pollution particularly from Industrial facilities that use PFAS is known to be a source of the problem in New Jersey [Music]