Mike Belliveau is the Founder, President and Executive Director of Defend Our Health, which is a national organization, based in Maine, that has advanced public health, environmental justice and clean production since 2002.  For over forty years, Mike has led chemical policy reform and worked with corporations to phase out toxic chemical use. 

Defend Our Health has just released an innovative study, Hidden Hazards: The Chemical Footprint of a Plastic Bottle, which illustrates the comprehensive cost of a plastic bottle, from creation to waste.  Many of the dangerous chemicals used to make PET plastic bottles are either migrating out of the bottle into the food and beverages they contain, or are polluting the waterways upstream, where the plastic is produced.

Belliveau doesn't despair because he sees solutions. He says, "There's a better way of doing things, so let's put those in place. We have an obligation to future generations to make a difference."

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Episode 35

For Earth Day, Nik Charov, (President and Chairman of Laudholm Trust at Wells Reserve) thinks of Mother Earth as an "accountant, as much as a nurturer."  The spreadsheet is all about living in the balance, not over-spending our resources for corporate profit or convenience.

Nik thinks about the art of science communication and "climate pollution," as it relates to plastics and local climate change.  Located next to a Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge, Nik  illustrates how policy changes led to a raptor comeback-- a toxics success story.  He calls on us all to use our power as citizens to pressure government for environmental changes for a healthy future.Maine,

​The Wells Reserve is a national  estuarine science research center in Wells, Maine where you can connect with nature through miles of trails, festivals, speakers and so much more.  ​FMI: www.wellsreserve.org. 

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Episode 33

Julie Rosenbach is the Sustainability Director for the City of South Portland, Maine.  Together with Portland's Sustainability Coordinator, Troy Moon, the two cities are pioneers in collaboration between municipalities in an award-winning  joint climate action plan.  They have led teams of citizens to create One Climate Future goals. Both cities have banned the use of fertilizers and pesticides, as a way to meet these goals by 2040.

Another way toward becoming a more climate change resilient community is through South Portland's new "100 Resilient Yards" initiative, which just launched in March of 2023.   Julie shares her hopes for this creative program, a wonderful example of partnership with 8 collaborators and 4 funders, (including Healthy Babies, Bright Futures).
​Julie walks the talk when she says, "Partnerships are everything!"

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Episode 32

​Dr. Kyra Naumoff Shields is an Environmental Health Scientist at Healthy Babies, Bright Futures, an organization known for protecting children's developing bodies and brains from neurotoxins, present in our everyday lives. 

Dr. Naumoff Shields is HBBF's Director of the program called  Bright Cities, reducing toxic exposures on a community level.  

She discusses research and engagement the organization has done around toxic-free baby food, the increased incidence of developmental delays and the link between toxics and climate change.

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Episode 28

Adam and his wife own Songbird Organic Farm, in Unity, Maine which became central to the PFAS deliberations last winter, after they learned that their organic farm was in fact heavily contaminated by PFAS, from historic sludge spreading. With great courage and integrity, they immediately curtailed their food production and spoke up about this growing problem.  This spring (2022) Maine passed a law (LD 1911) that banned the spreading of sludge.  As awareness grows about there being no actual safe level of exposure we have to make other choices about what to do with "bio-solids." 

Adam is now the Campaign Manager for Defend Our Health, working to organize impacted farmers around the state of Maine.  Adam describes the process underway to allocate the $60M PFAS aid package.  (LD2013) The aid will most importantly offer a safety net for impacted farmers, as well as medical monitoring/care and research.  Recently, Senator King introduced a similar bill to support farmers,  at the federal level, called Relief for Farmers Hit with PFAS Act. 

​In the meantime, Adam talks about slowing down, becoming aware of our sense of place, and using the precautionary principle whenever possible, as a way to protect Mama/Mother Earth.

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Episode 27

Don Kimball was a non-commissioned officer, stationed on Pease Air Force Base in New Hampshire from 1977-1981, at a time when they were frequently using a firefighting foam (AFFF),  which we now know to be full of PFAS.  

Today, Don is the producer and host of a radio program called Friendly Fire: A Voice For Veterans where he frequently tackles thorny issues like chemical exposures and toxic PFAS testing for veterans.  

Don participated in the recent PFAS study conducted with former Pease AFB members. The PFAS Exchange can help participants to make sense of their results. A map of  PFAS Contamination of water and military sites in the US demonstrates how far reaching this issue is, particularly on military bases. 
Don recommends people interested in the subject explore two websites: Civilian Exposure and Military Poisons. ​

A member of the Maine Veterans for Peace, Don views social and environmental justice issues in a global context.  Did you know that the number one entity for consuming fossil fuels, thus contributing to global climate change on the planet, is the US Department of Defense?  Don invites interested parties to join an upcoming climate change action in Boston on Nov 16th at 11 AM  to protest Chase Bank's investment in fossil fuels, in solidarity with the COP 27 conference in Egypt. 

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Episode 26

Frederica Perera, PhD founded Columbia's Center for Children's Environmental Health and is a professor of Environmental Health Sciences at Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health.  Recently, her book Children's Health and the Perils of Climate Change was published by Oxford University Press, (2022).  

Dr. Perera wrote this book as a wake up call, a call to action.  From her research, she knows that children are particularly at risk from air pollution, mostly caused by fossil fuels.  This book is timely because the cures for children's health are the same as the ones we can employ for climate health, which is considered to be in Code Red Alert, by the UN.  

This book is a resource and a reference for both children's ill health (eg: SIDS, Asthma, ADHD, Autism Spectrum Disorder, anxiety/depression, loss of IQ, mental health) and the more hopeful solution-focused examples that have been demonstrated effective, around the globe. 

Governments have a large role to play in the fix, but Dr. Perera recognizes that individual choices influence others and make a real difference.  Organizations that she recommends:
Fridays for Future
Sunrise Movement
International Youth Climate Movement,
Zero Hour
Earth Uprising
Extinction Rebellion
Moms Clean Air Force
The Society of Fearless Grandmothers
The Elders

Dr. Perera says, "Now's the time" to act.  Our actions can alleviate suffering, costly medical treatments, and death.  Positive changes will benefit us by slowing climate change, making green jobs, recovering human potential  and a creating healthier population/planet, for all species. 

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Episode 24

Kelsey George was in her mid-twenties when she rented an apartment in Hancock County, ME.  There she drank, bathed in, cooked and irrigated with well water that was over the federal limit of 10 ppl with arsenic.  She got sicker and sicker and it took a long time before she realized she should test her well water that was odorless, colorless and tasted normal.  The invisible arsenic was exactly what was making her so ill.

​One in six Mainers who drink well water are exposed to unsafe arsenic levels.  Kelsey strongly advocates for testing well water regularly, to be sure it is safe.

Kelsey George worked with Defend Our Health and testified before the Maine Legislature.  She advocated for the new law that went into effect on January 1, 2022.  Now landlords have to test their residential wells for arsenic levels, and share the results with residents.  This precaution would have protected Kelsey from her toxic arsenic poisoning, had it been in place when she was renting and drinking well water in 2009.  

__________________Resources__________________

Assistance is available: 
Free Well Water Testing for Low Income Mainers
​Maine water testing labs: 
​A list of Accredited Maine Water Testing Labs
Public Water Supply: Maine Tracking Network
Maine Arsenic Video: More information 

Common symptoms of arsenic poisoning:
Skin - red, swollen, irritated, new warts, lesions
Gut - abdominal pain, nausea, diarrhea, vomiting
Heart - abnormal rhythm, disease
Neurological - confusion, numbness
Body - muscle cramps, headaches
Long-term exposures:
 - darkening/ thickening skin
 - constant sore throat
 - persistent digestive issues
 - cancer (bladder, skin, lung, liver, kidney)

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I first interviewed Kelsey about her arsenic story in 2020, while I studied at The Salt Institute for Documentary Studies. You can hear that separate feature "To Know Full Well", below. 

Episode 23

​Mindi Messmer is an environmental and public health scientist (Clinical and Translational Science, MS) so other parents reached out to her when local families began experiencing a tragic pediatric cancer cluster in Rye, NH 2014. Her empathy for their terribly scary situations led her to become involved as a local activist, leader, and public servant.

Mindi Messmer was elected to the New Hampshire House of Representatives (2016-2018) where she worked to protect public health through bills on PFAS, arsenic and lead poisoning prevention. She remains committed to cancer prevention and environmental and drinking water protection.

Mindi is the author of Female Disruptors, Stories of Mighty Female Scientists (2022), which she discusses in this interview. 

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Episode 22

Corey Hinton is a lawyer at Drummond Woodsum in Portland, ME.  He is the leader of the firm's Tribal Nations Practice Group.  Recently, he represented the Passamaquoddy Tribe in a fight for clean drinking water.  
Maine Legislation LD 906:  Clean Water For Passamaquoddy Tribe at Sipayik was successfully passed and signed into law on April 21, 2022.  After living with unreliable, odorous and toxic drinking water for decades there is finally movement toward several short, medium, and long range solutions.  Regarding toxics in the water supply, he believes we simply must reduce our toxic inputs into the natural world, which benefit only a select few people's short term gains. 

Additionally, Hinton discusses environmental and social justice issues that have been gaining some recent traction.  These ideas are not new, however, he can reference Maine Legislature notes from the 1870's in which Passamaquoddy leaders were seeking many of the same measures around social justice and respectful environmental stewardship which the still seek today.

FMI:  www.wabinakialliance.org.

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