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 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

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Episode 16

Laurene Allen is a clinical social worker who also became a citizen activist in 2016 when she and her community of Merrimack, NH learned they had been exposed to PFAS in their drinking water for 15-20 years from the Saint-Gobain factory (formerly called Chemfab).  Laurene co-founded Merrimack Citizens for Clean Water as they sorted through the sad realities of what extended exposures mean to public health. 
  
The scope of the problems with PFAS far exceeded her small town and Laurene joined other community leaders around the nation to co-found the National PFAS Contamination Coalition, to help people learn to use the available resources to learn about PFAS and protect themselves, with the support of others who understand and can share their roadmap.  

It is traumatic for communities to learn they have been exposed, and are sick or waiting for worried about getting sick and protecting their loved ones.  Laurene recommends that each household get a reverse osmosis water filter for drinking water, and directs people to these resources:
For stress: ATSDR
For community support and solidarity: NPCC
In the Merrimack area: MCFCW
And on this site's page: WMW Resources

Merrimack's PFAS water contamination story was documented, along with three similar towns, in the 2019 movie called Bad Water. Small Towns. Deaf Ears.  Director Victor Pytko says it's "Everything you need to know about PFAS, but don't know how to ask." Laurene is one of the featured activists in the film.

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Episode 15

Dr. Rachel Massey is Senior Associate Director and Policy Program Manager at the Toxics Use Reduction Institute (TURI) at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. TURI's program was established as part of the Toxics Use Reduction Act of 1989, designed to protect public health and the environment while enhancing the competitiveness of MA businesses.

Three partners work together to make the Toxics Use Reduction legislation effective in reducing pollution:  
1. Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP).
2. Office of Technical Assistance and Technology
3. TURI
This is the gold standard practice, in the field of toxics reduction.   They focus on reducing chemical hazards, not just limiting exposure.  This is how Massachusetts was able to reduced their toxic use by 234 million pounds.  Less chemicals, less exposures. 
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Rachel's work includes policy development and program management internally and throughout the state of Massachusetts. She also manages TURI’s community grant program.  Dr. Massey speaks on this show about examples of companies reducing toxics and saving money, such as dry cleaning vs. wet cleaning and artificial turf vs. organic grass fields.

For lots more information:
TURI's video page, click here. 
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Episode 14
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​Jaime and Ayesha, best friends since college, started the Nantucket PFAS Action Group after learning that Ayesha's husband, Nate Barber, had contracted testicular cancer, likely from workplace exposures to PFAS.  Their desire to better understand how firefighters were being impacted led them to create a study, funded by TURI, to measure PFAS levels in fire service professional's turnout gear.

Ayesha and Jaime may be new to the PFAS activist roles they have assumed, but they are unstoppable and have some recommendations of good places to start learning more about PFAS.
Start here:
1. The PFAS Exchange. Community driven resources backed by excellent research and links. And it includes a tool for water testing comparisons regarding PFAS exposure.
2. Green Science offers PFAS research and policy advocacy. 
3. PFAS-Free PPE Turnout Gear for firefighters. 

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Episode 12

Dr. Diana Cunningham, ND, practiced for 23 years as a Naturopath, with a special interest in environmental illness. Currently, she is Director of the Friends of Cathedral Trees Sanctuary and is a Conservation and Restoration Burial Advocate who is an expert on environmentally-responsible deathcare. She talks about Conservation and Restoration Burial cemeteries being simple, relatively inexpensive, and a mercury-responsible form of deathcare. 

Diana has written the 21st century answer to Jessica Mitford's formerly bestselling book of the last century; Cunningham's book is The New American Way of Death: Everybody’s Guide to the Revolution In Lifecare and Deathcare for the Millennium. (Available in 2023).

Diana's wisdom is steeped in a strong science background with an in-depth understanding  the “catch-22” of our deathcare choices: creating mercury air pollution from the cremation of our bodies. Although our bodies are heavily polluted, she states that our bodies can be managed most efficiently with environmentally-responsible burials which sequester mercury and other heavy metals, back to the depths of the earth.

Diana sounds the alarm, regarding mercury in our lives, but also offers some hope-filled solutions to this extremely toxic challenge. She speaks of a new chelating medicine called Emeramide (presently in FDA drug trials), which is designed to help people have access to safe removal of mercury, without the side effects of common chelators. This information is illustrated in the documentary film “Evidence of Harm” (2015), featuring Professor emeritus Dr. Boyd Haley and members of the International Academy of Oral and Medical Toxicology (IAOMT).

Mercury causes severe health effects including Alzheimer's and other neurological diseases; for more information from the IAOMT click here,  and the EPA, click here.  

Diana recommends Minamata, a film based on a true story about Japan's mercury pollution, and cover up. It helps viewers to understand the seven stages of methyl-mercury poisoning and the lasting effects on a culture.  

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Episode 10

Lori Gramlich represents Old Orchard Beach in the Maine Legislature, where she has introduced numerous bills to support the health of children and clean drinking water.  

Lori uses her skills as a social worker and advocate to protect Mainers from toxic harms that come from PFAS in firefighting foam and household products, arsenic in our residential well water, and keeping glyphosate away from developing children.  

Lori Gramlich shines as a champion of the environment on the Environment and Natural Resources committee. Her reverence for the natural world, and the health of the people who live here, is what motivates her actions and leadership.  
Some of Rep. Gramlich's sponsored bills have become laws, making Maine a national leader in the control of the spreading of PFAS products and holding corporate polluters responsible. 

Bonus: Before the Deluge -- A favorite Jackson Browne song that underscores the relationship between earth health and "the men who learned how to forge her beauty into power." 

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Episode 8

Sarah Woodbury is the Director of Advocacy at Defend Our Health.   As a lobbyist, she works closely with legislators and coalition partners to advance Defend’s mission of fighting for safe products, food, and drinking water.  Her team has had some first-in-the-world success in a law to ban non-essential uses of PFAS by 2030. To read about Defend Our Health's accomplishments this legislative session, click here.  For more information on assistance for residential well water testing, click here. 

Sarah's  job is to get government to act, and she enjoyed a productive legislative session this spring, doing just that around firefighting foam, farmland biosolids ban, and  testing where sludge has already been spread, PFAS water standard at 20/ppt, water testing, and support on Penobscot and Passamaquoddy safe drinking water. 

Sarah has done similar lobbying and communications work, in DC, for the Anti-Defamation League and Planned Parenthood Federation of America, using her Master’s Degree in Applied Politics, from American University and her B.S. in Political Science, from Portland State University.  She was just born persuasive!

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Episode 4

Andrea Amico is an occupational therapist who also became a serious activist when she learned, in 2014, that her husband and young children were impacted by drinking highly contaminated PFAS water at the former Pease Air Force Base in Portsmouth, NH. 
Andrea Amico is a co-founder of the community action group called Testing for Pease which is responsible for a blood testing program and two health studies.  Andrea is truly passionate about raising awareness about PFAS and has presented on the TED stage, before the US congress, at national and international conferences on PFAS.

For more information on Testing For Pease, click here for their Facebook page, and here for Twitter. Resources such as PFAS Exchange, the New Hampshire Safe Water Alliance,  and the National PFAS Contamination Coalition can be found here and on the Resources page of this website. 

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Episode 2
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​Cathy and Bruce live in Fairfield, ME where the recent discovery of PFAS has profoundly changed the lives of many people.  The couple became citizen activists to try to stop the continued spreading of PFAS on agricultural fields (LD 1911) after learning that their well water tested at 32,000 parts per trillion (when it should be under 20 ppt).  This is the very same well water that filled their swimming pool which was regularly used for years to entertain their 14 grandchildren and extended families.  

Cathy and Bruce's dismay has turned into deep personal concerns.  Is this why she has fibromyalgia?  Is this what is behind his rapid weight loss?  Together, they are fighting to stop the pollution, monitor their health, and figure out what to do with their contaminated property.  

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