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 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. 

Play audio, below:

Episode 30

Mike Garfield is the Director of the Ecology Center in Ann Arbor, MI.  Established in 1970, the Ecology Center works on ending lead poisoning, air quality, climate action and energy equity.  It is also the home of the Healthy Stuff Lab.  

Mike discusses "greenwashing" and how it relates to the plastics industry.  Presently, the oil and petro-chemical industries are promoting the idea of "chemical recycling" (aka catalytic pyrolysis of plastic waste or "depolymerization") which means melting plastic and making it into solid, liquid and gaseous fuel products. Twenty states have already changed laws to relax regulations against pyrolysis and gasification, even though such incinerators create huge amounts of toxic pollution and a substantial carbon footprint.  

Play audio, below:

Episode 37

Madison Madden is an Ayurvedic practitioner, trained in California and India.  She uses a detoxification practice called Panchakarma to help people remove toxics  from their bodies, as part of an ancient medical tradition, which originated in India. 
​
Madison is the author of a book called Mind Body Food, which tells the tale of her journey from a toxic pesticide exposure, as a toddler, through an impaired childhood.  She finds yoga and Auryvedic medicine and walks a path to healing and health.  Now she helps others along that path. 

Madison is also an expert yoga and somatic practitioner and she lives in Colorado, where she's a consultant at Live Wise. 

A listing of Ayurvedic medicine practitioners can be found here.

Play audio, below:

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. 

​Play audio, below:

Episode 25

​Dr. Roopa Krithivasan, recently published a 68 page report called Problem Plastic: How Polyester and PET Plastic Can Be Unsafe, Unjust and Unsustainable Materials.  Dr. Krithivasan is the Director of Research for Defend Our Health and has a background in social, ecological and conservation research.  

Dr. Krithivasan discusses the hidden health hazards from the hundreds of chemicals used to make plastics.  For instance, antimony is a chemical used in the plastic finishing process for PET and polyester (plastic bottles, clothing, stuffed animals, packaging), and it is toxic to the liver and heart.  More than 99% of PET and polyester is made from non-renewable fossil gas and oil and is very often created in plants located next to "fenceline communities."  Serious environmental justice issues have been created In these exposed communities.  Often young children and people of color face the greatest harm  to the chemicals used in the plastic plants next door.

Roopa Krithivasan calls for greater corporate responsibility with regard to reducing and/or eliminating the toxics used in plastics production.

Play audio, below:

Episode 19

Jon Swan is the founder of Save Forest Lake in the North Country of New Hampshire.  Save Forest Lake is fighting to preserve the pristine water, air, and soil for future generations by taking on a proposed landfill, challenging setbacks, initiating zoning and getting involved in political decision-making.

Save Forest Lake invites everyone to join them at 10:45 AM on the steps of the capitol building in Concord on September 15th, 2022 (wearing blue for the water) to urge a veto override that would protect their water from becoming polluted by a proposed Casella landfill.

Play audio, below

Episode 18

Abby Barrows is a marine scientist, researcher and oyster farmer.  She initiated the first baseline data map of micro plastic pollution in Maine in 2012 and more recently was the principal investigator for the Global Microplastic Initiative, compiling one of the largest global datasets on every continent and ocean in the world. Abby partnered with Adventure Scientists to successfully gather samples from remote fresh and marine waters around the globe. See map of findings.

Abby is the owner and operator of Long Cove Sea Farm, an oyster business in Stonington, ME, where she works to employ alternatives to plastic in her oyster farming practices.  For purchasing sustainable seafood, Abby recommends using Monterey Bay Aquarium's app called Seafood Watch.

Ways to decrease single-use plastics in your daily life:
Don't use K-cups/coffee pods, bring your own utensils, use glass containers for food storage, use bar soap/shampoo/conditioner, bamboo toothbrushes, fill your trash bags full and more.

Ways to join others in the fight against plastics:
5Gyres
​Plastic Pollution Coalition
Surfrider Foundation
Upstream Solutions

on Facebook
​on Instagram

Play audio, below.

 Episode 17

Rachael Zoe Miller is an expedition scientist, inventor, National Geographic Explorer and Explorers Club Fellow working to protect the ocean. She is the Founder of Rozalia Project for a Clean Ocean, a nonprofit working on the problem of marine debris, co-inventor/CEO of the Cora Ball.

Rachael captained the 60’ sailing research vessel, American Promise. She has lead teams on expeditions whose scientific results are published in peer-reviewed journals and education programs that inspire thousands of people of all ages.

Click for links to related resources:
Clothes Dryers and Microplastics paper,
TED x Lowell talk/video,
Marine debris Data Card used by citizen scientists, 
Microfiber School Activity Handout,
Nat Geo Expeditions and CSI for the Ocean, (Oct 1-24, 2022)  
Sign-up for Ship-to-Shore educational experience.

Instagram handles:
@rachaelzoemiller
@thecoraball
@rozaliaproject

​Play audio, below.