Episode 39 

Maya is the Senior Market Campaigner at Defend Our Health.  Defend has just released a research report called Hidden Hazards: The Chemical Footprint of a Plastic Bottle: How the Beverage Industry's Addiction to Plastic Bottles May Prolong the Climate Crisis, threaten Human Health and Promote Environmental Racism.  

Maya discusses strategies for leveraging power to influence soda companies to demand cleaner plastic from the bottle producers.  She also shares stories of impacted people living in communities on the fence lines of plastics manufacturing plants, suffering ill health.  

One resource consumers can use to check the safety of everyday products is through Green Screen Certification. 

Play audio, below:

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."

Play audio, below:

Episode 36

Will Chappell is the President of Air and Water Quality, Inc., a Maine-based business that helps homeowners resolve water quality concerns.  Since Maine has a higher percentage of residents drinking from residential wells than any other state, it is a matter of public health to get regular testing for well water.

Toxic heavy metals (arsenic, manganese, uranium) and man-made chemicals (PFAS) can often be present in our residential well water.  Because you cannot see, smell or taste these toxics, it is important to test your residential wells every 3-5 years.  

One can get started by contacting a lab or reaching out to a water treatment business.  In Maine, there are also funds available to help low-income households with testing and remediation expenses. 

Play audio, below:

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)

Play audio, below:

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. 

Play audio, below:

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.

Play audio, below:

Episode 21

Dr. David Kriebel is an epidemiologist and Professor Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts in Lowell.  

Dr. Kriebel discusses the known and suspected health risks associated with tattoo inks, tattoos, and the tattoo removal process.  As an epidemiologist, he implores scientists to actually conduct a study so we can use that information to help protect people.  

"Although a number of color additives are approved for use in cosmetics, none are approved for injection into the skin." FDA.  Tattoo inks can include untested toxic ingredients in colored synthetic dyes and pigments such as: mercury, cadmium, chromium, cobalt, aluminum, cinnabar, nickel, manganese, acrylic, and more.  One question might be, why do consumers feel tattoos are safe? 

In January of 2022 the European Union banned toxic tattoo inks and investigators in some European countries have begun studying not only the unsafe inks, but also the possibility of long-term health risks of tattoos. 
​
Dr. Kriebel is also the Director of the Lowell Center for Sustainable Production, which collaborates with industries, government agencies, unions, and community organizations on the redesign of systems of production to make them healthier and more environmentally sound.

​Play audio, below.

Episode 20

Ruth Hennig was the Executive Director of the John Merck Fund which supported public policy and research for improved human health, specializing in developmental disabilities and environmental health.  While working to fund projects advocating for and studying the health implications of chemical exposures, she herself was diagnosed and treated for cancer. 

Ruth discusses the way having cancer, twice, caused her to ask some broader questions and engage in her own care choices.  The process ultimately led her to become more activated and involved in preventing harmful chemical exposures for others.  Presently, Ruth serves on the board of Defend Our Health and is a member of the Maine State Advisory Board for the Conservation Law Foundation.  

Some places to get more information on toxics, which Ruth recommends:
Environmental Working Group
Healthy Babies, Bright Futures
Defend Our Health
​Toxic Free Future
Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health

Play audio, below.