joce sterman from circa joins us. this is spreading across if country. joce: this is a problem that the police and the fire departments are forced to tackle. they have to talk about how to handle overdose calls and the drug arrests because the cops and the first responders don't know if they are handling fentanyl unless something goes horribly wrong. >> i thought i was dying. joce: the new jersey police officers know what it is like to overdose on a potentially deadly drug. but they didn't do it on purpose. >> i couldn't disoriented. everything was exaggerated in your mind. joce: lining up an emergency response for themselves is something that the cops, firefighters and the e.m.s. workers have to worry about thanks to illegal fentanyl. when they answer the call for the drug cases or overdoses they could come in contact with the drug which looks like heroin but has scarier consequences. gary is losing sleep because his agents are at risk in the drug seizures. >> they don't know if they are handling heroin or fentanyl. >> the difference could be life or dea

joce sterman, from our digital partner circa, has our report. ss the country, the war on drugs is getting tough talk. sheriff peyton grinnell: to the dealers, i say, enjoy looking over your shoulder, constantly wondering, if today is the day we come for you. joce: at all levels, a crackdown to stop, or control, the country's addiction to opioids -- and the suppliers who fuel it. gary tuggle: we still need to be laser-focused on dismantling them or severely disrupting them. joce: gary tuggle has been fighting the drug dealers for more than 20 years. now, he's the special agent in charge of the drug enforcement administration's philadelphia field office. his main focus -- stopping the rising abuse of synthetic opiates, like fentanyl and carfentanil. gary tuggle: this stuff will kill you in micrograms. what would be the equivalent of grains of salt could cause you to die. joce: is this something i can readily find? gary tuggle: aol we've drummed up an increased focus on going after these groups on the internet that are trafficking in fentanyl. joce:

joce sterman is live to talk about the serious issues she uncovered that put the workers at risk. >>ght. the workers we talk to are sidelined with the serious health problems after breathing in the chemicals. we know that clean-up could take another 30 years and cold taxpayers billions. >> his life is nothing like it used to be. he used to throwed mountains now he can barely breathe. >> every day i struggle to breathe and i wake up. i have to use the breathing machine and be careful everywhere i go. >> for years he worked at the site in washington state. the place that once used to make plutonium for world war ii. it's now the most contaminated nuclear site in america. >> if this is the most contaminated site in america, why is this not priority one. headlines every day about the problems. >> the government doesn't want it to be. >> there is attention paid now thanks to an emergency at the site you last week that has since been contained. advocacy groups like hanford challenge have been sounding the alarm for years about the problems with the clean-up effort. they say the government

joce sterman explains how much taxpayer money they are spending to deal with it. >> we were out calibratinginstruments. i just all of a sudden ended up with a felt like someone sitting on my chest. >> after seconds, his career was ended in one day. after he says he breathed in something strange. serious health problems sidelined him. >> this is half of the medical records. >> made his wife an advocate for getting his claims through the system. >> it's more than a full-time job. i can't keep up with it. >> this family one of many struggling with the new normal after working at stanford. this is they started to investigate after hearing of the problems ignored for years. >> this is a moral and a legal obligation from the country. >> the safety advocates think the feds have an obligation to acknowledge workers have been warmed. circa found since 200129,000 of them filed federal compensation. the records show almost 60% of the workers' claims don't get paid. but even with that, $1.3 billion has been paid out by a special government fund. the taxpayers split the bill. not the con tackers on the