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. 

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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 34

Dianne Kopec is a Research Fellow at the Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Sustainability at the University of Maine. Her biological research documents toxic contaminants in wildlife, such as mercury in fish (and the animals that eat them, like birds and harbor seals). 

Because of mercury contamination in Maine's waters, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife has a posted fish consumption health advisory. Since all 50 states have such advisories, the EPA also offers safe eating guidelines for fish consumption, especially for pregnant women, as exposure can cause behavioral problems and decreased cognitive performance.  

For decades, mercury contamination in Maine freshwater fish has denied members of the Penobscot Nation their legally protected sustenance fishing rights. Currently, Dr. Kopec's research is helping to minimize mercury exposure to tribal members. 

With an eye on the future, Dianne Kopec says, "We don't have to accept mercury pollution as a given."  She discusses how legislation today can protect all of us from toxic exposures tomorrow, so that we might be able to fish with our grandchildren...and eat the catch.  

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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 7

Mark is the retired Bureau Director for Maine Department of Environmental Protection.  He worked to clean up  Superfund 
sites in Maine.  He speaks of many acronyms, CERCLA and the devoted and brilliant people he had the pleasure to work with through the EPA.  Since 1980, our government has been working to clean up toxic chemicals from air, water and soil in many different settings. 

Mark wants people to realize that they have the right to know if they are living near toxic chemicals so they can prepare and plan, as needed.   The Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) is a great resource.

Mark thinks Mama Earth would want us all to pay closer attention to what we are buying (such as PFAS products) and using, (including our water).  He recommends comprehensively testing residential well water every two years.  For information on financial assistance to test well water in Maine, click here. 

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