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. 
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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.

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Episode 11

Lee Webster is Funeral Reform Advocate who is an expert on palliative care, home funerals and green burials.  Green burials are a simple and non-toxic way to put human bodies directly into the earth--which also turns out to be community focused, earth-friendly, and sequesters carbon, as well. 

Embalming fluids and cremation expose industry workers to concerning toxics such as formaldehyde, methanol, and mercury.  And that doesn't account for the social and environmental justice concerns for cemetery lawn maintenance workers routinely exposed to pesticides and herbicides. 

Beyond being the Director of New Hampshire Funeral Resources, Education and Advocacy, on the board of the Conservation Burial Alliance and a co-founder of the National End-of-Life Doula Alliance, Lee is also part of a group of artists who locally hand-craft items used in green burials called the Funerary Artisans Collective.  
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​Lee Webster is the author of The After-Death Care Educator Handbook (2022), and Changing Landscapes: Exploring the growth of ethical, compassionate, and environmentally sustainable green funeral practices (2017). 

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Episode 1
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Gail Carlson has a PhD in Biochemistry and teaches Environmental Public Health courses at Colby College, where she also directs the Buck Lab for Climate and Environment.  Her research focuses on characterizing local environmental contamination by hazardous pollutants such as arsenic and PFAS in things like pharmaceuticals, personal care products and ski wax. 
Dr. Carlson teaches her students to become advocates for policy change and practices advocacy, herself, at the state legislature and through board work with Defend Our Health.  During the pandemic Dr. Carlson wrote and published a textbook called Human Health and the Climate Crisis (2022). 

The story of ski wax is described in this interview while connecting this success story to what needs to happen, at the macro level, for a healthier planet.  

For more information on fluoro-free ski wax options click here.  And for general consumer product safety information Gail recommends information from the Environmental Working Group.  

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