What Mama Wants

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.

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 scientific paper (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."

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. ​

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.

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.​Wells Reserve is an estuarine 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.

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. https://www.whatmamawants.org/archived-episodes/dianne-kopec

Julie Rosenbach is the Sustainability Director for the City of South Portland, Maine. Together with Portland's Sustainability Coordinator, Troy Moon, the two cities are pioneers in collaboration between municipalities in an award-winning joint climate action plan. They have led teams of citizens to create One Climate Future goals. Both cities have banned the use of fertilizers and pesticides, as a way to meet these goals by 2040.Another way toward becoming a more climate change resilient community is through South Portland's new "100 Resilient Yards" initiative, which just launched in March of 2023. Julie shares her hopes for this creative program, a wonderful example of partnership with 8 collaborators and 4 funders, (including Healthy Babies, Bright Futures).​Julie walks the talk when she says, "Partnerships are everything!"

Dr. Kyra Naumoff Shieldsis an Environmental Health Scientist at Healthy Babies, Bright Futures, an organization known for protecting children's developing bodies and brains from neurotoxins, present in our everyday lives. Dr. Naumoff Shields is HBBF's Director of the program called Bright Cities, reducing toxic exposures on a community level. She discusses research and engagement the organization has done around toxic-free baby food, the increased incidence of developmental delays and the link between toxics and climate change.

​Dr. Susan Smith talks us through her faculty art exhibit called Radical Gardening: practice-based research, 2022, which is on display in Lord Hall at the University of Maine until March 17, 2023. Her mobile lab display unit is focused on soils, water and plant matter gathered from known sites contaminated with PFAS or "forever chemicals," from Maine to Texas. Inspired to stop using toxics in her artwork, Dr. Smith strives to creating her art with sustainable materials from the earth, found, grown and recycled. Susan Smith, is an Associate Research Professor of Art and serves as the Coordinator for the Graduate Art Program in Intermedia at the University of Maine in Orono, ME. Find her on Instagram@slsmithstudio.

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 petrochemical 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

Adam and his wife own Songbird Organic Farm, in Unity, Maine which became central to the PFAS deliberations last winter, after they learned that their organic farm was in fact heavily contaminated by PFAS, from historic sludge spreading. With great courage and integrity, they immediately curtailed their food production and spoke up about this growing problem. This spring (2022) Maine passed a law (LD 1911) that banned the spreading of sludge. As awareness grows about there being no actual safe level of exposure we have to make other choices about what to do with "bio-solids." Adam is now the Campaign Manager for Defend Our Health, working to organize impacted farmers around the state of Maine. Adam describes the process underway to allocate the $60M PFAS aid package. (LD2013) The aid will most importantly offer a safety net for impacted farmers, as well as medical monitoring/care and research. Recently, Senator King introduced a similar bill to support farmers, at the federal level, called Relief for Farmers Hit with PFAS Act. ​In the meantime, Adam talks about slowing down, becoming aware of our sense of place, and using the precautionary principle whenever possible, as a way to protect Mama/Mother Earth.

Troy Moon is the Sustainability Coordinator for the City of Portland, Maine. His office organizes efforts to reduce carbon emissions, manage resources, and prepare for the impacts of climate change. In 2018 the Portland City Council passed a landcare ordinance to ban toxic pesticide use on both publicly maintained lands (gardens, athletic fields, parks, playgrounds and public lawns) and privately owned land. Residents pushed for this change in order to protect the public health, since pesticides are linked to many serious health issues (asthma, hormone disruption, lymphoma, Parkinson's disease, leukemia, brain cancer, and issues related to skin, eyes and the nervous system). Removing pesticides from the environment also protects biodiversity and the Blue Economy of Casco Bay. On March 19, 2023 an additional ban of chemical fertilizers is also going into place, in Maine's largest city. Prior to fertilizing lawns, homeowners will need to test the soil. Free soil test kits are available through Cumberland County's Extension Office.

Frederica Perera, PhD founded Columbia's Center for Children's Environmental Healthand 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 FutureSunrise MovementInternational Youth Climate Movement,Zero HourEarth UprisingExtinction RebellionMoms Clean Air ForceThe Society of Fearless GrandmothersThe EldersDr. 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.

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 from 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.

"More Women in Science"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.

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, as 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.

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.FMI see: www.whatmamawants.org

Ruth Hennig was the Executive Director of the John Merck Fund which supported 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 an advisor for the Conservation Law Foundation.

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.

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 use 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:5GyresPlastic Pollution CoalitionSurfrider FoundationUpstream Solutions

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.

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: ATSDRFor community engagement playbook: NPCCIn the Merrimack area: MCFCWAnd on this site's page: WMW ResourcesMerrimack'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.

Dr. Rachel Massey is Senior Associate Director and Policy Program Manager at the Toxics Use Reduction Institute 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 Toxic Use Reduction legislation effective in reducing pollution: 1. EPA in Massachusetts2. Office of Technical Assistance and Technology3. TURIThis 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. ​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.

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.

Patrick MacRoy is the Deputy Director of Defend Our Health, a national non-profit, based in Maine, that builds a grassroots movement to drive toxics out of our food, water, homes and packaging. This past legislative session, Defend Our Health helped pass a first-in-the-nation ban on the spreading of sludge (Maine's inadvertent way of introducing PFAS and other chemicals into the soil of farmer's fields). Patrick talks about this win, along with others. He explains why Maine has been able to be so successful and highlights the courageous efforts of farmer Fred Stone, who was the first to speak up about the PFAS disaster in Maine farming.Patrick, with his breadth of policy knowledge around all things PFAS, was able to also explain how the federal government (including the EPA and FDA) and the Chemical Industry (spearheaded by the American Chemistry Council) figure into our everyday realities around PFAS contaminated water and soil.__________________________________Thank you sincerely for your help in getting this show out there in the world! There's always info on the show's facebook page, instagram and website, if needed. Kate ManahanWhat Mama Wantshttps://www.whatmamawants.org/archived-episodes/patrick-macroy

Diana Cunningham is the Director of a conservation cemetery project called Friends of Cathedral Tree Sanctuaryin southern, Oregon. She is also a naturopath who has written a book (still at the publishers) called The New American Way of Death. Diana's wisdom is steeped in a strong science background with an in-depth knowledge of mercury, especially related to cremation and green burial alternatives. Diana sounds the alarm, regarding mercury in our lives, but also offers some hope-filled solutions to this toxic predicament we are living. She speaks of chelating medicine called Emeramide(presently in FDA drug trials), which is designed to help everyday people have access to safely chelating/pulling out the mercury, which has accumulated in their bodies over time. This information is illustrated in the documentary featuring film called Evidence of Harm(2020).Sometimes these mercury exposures come through self-care products andpharmaceuticals, and sometimes they come through polluted air, water, and food. Mercury causes significant health effects, for more information from the EPA, click here.(This info, with links, is always available on the website, too: www.whatmamawants.org)

Lee Webster is Funeral Reform Advocate who is an expert on palliative care, home funerals and green burials. Green burialsare 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. ​​Lee Webster is the author of The After-Death Care Educator Handboo, which has recently been reprinted.

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.

Sarah Nichols serves as the Sustainable Maine Director at the Natural Resources Council of Maine and is a nationally recognized policy expert on the subject of waste management.Sarah leads local and state efforts to reduce waste, encourage reuse, while increasing recycling and composting in Maine. Some of her notable accomplishments include policies that banned the distribution of plastic shopping bags and foam food containers in Maine. More recently, she helped pass the nation's first Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for Packaging law. It is now Maine's policy to move to a “polluter-pays” model, like Canada and the European Union have already implemented. ​Closing the out-of-state waste loophole was another big win for Maine this past legislative session. LD 1639 stopped allowing private construction companies to dump their demolition waste, which included lead, arsenic, PFAS, mercury, and other toxic materials, into Maine's Juniper Ridge landfill. ​For more information on programs to safely dispose of toxics, visit www.ERCM.org.

Mark Hyland discussing Superfund sites in Maine.

Jeff Gearhart is the Research Director at the Ecology Center in Ann Arbor, MI. He has product tested over 100,000 everyday items, including artificial turf. Artificial turf is an environmental health issue on a large scale, with around 13,000 artificial turf fields in use today, while we add about 1,500 more a year. Artificial Turf as a Public Health Concern:Releases toxic chemicals including lead, PFAS, phthalates.Causes environmental warming to air and waterways and crumb rubber infiltrates land and water. Increases head and non-contact injuries, Exposes children to toxic fumes and direct contact with toxic materials. Can cause endocrine disruption, metabolism, liver and thyroid issues, cancer, immune dysfunction. Jeff also underscores the expense of artificial turf (roughly 1M raised through community campaigns) for fields that require maintenance and only last 8-10 years. And then they have to create toxic dumps for artificial turf waste (40,000 tires per field). Jeff Gearhart says using organic grass fields is a matter of, "Reclaiming, our heritage of having actually natural, safer, healthy playing fields. And I think it's about reclaiming the joy of sports and the joy of the community."Jeff Gearhart has co-authored many peer-reviewed articles on toxics in consumer products and suggests learning more about artificial turf from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Siani and the Toxic Use Reduction Institute.

Stoneridge Farm, in Arundel, ME, was the first farm in the state to learn it had high levels of PFAS "forever chemicals" in its water. The toxic chemicals built up from spreading sludge, as a soil amendment, year after year. The Maine Department of Environmental Protection assured the Stones that the practice was totally safe, so he helped to spread this form of fertilizer on many area farms, as well. But it was not safe. The chemicals were in the water and feed given to their cows, who then produced milk with very high levels of PFAS.Farmer Fred Stone, and his team, chose to notify their milk distributers as a matter of integrity and food safety, though it caused financial ruin, for them. Fred was recently quoted in the Beacon saying, "My moral compass so far has cost me $1.5 million. That is what it costs to have a moral compass." It has also cost them their health and the ability to keep their family farm alive, with the value of the land now ruined by toxic chemicals left from years of sludge spreading. Fred Stone thinks telling his story is a lot like fishing, "you never know what you are going to catch." And after the painful loss of their herd, their livelihood and their health, he wants to do what he can to spread the word on toxics in farming. Telling his story has helped. Presently, the state of Maine is about to have the first law in the country banning the spreading of sludge on farmland (LD 1911, currently awaiting the governor's signature). Likewise, a newly established $60 million dollar trust in Maine is intended to offer relief to farms like Stoneridge. "So God Made a Farmer" by Paul Harvey was played in this interview to highlight the powerful connection farmers have to the land and thus underscore the inconceivable loss farmers experience when their legacy is cut short by toxic ruin.

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.

Since childhood, Sue has envisioned a world that is compassionate, inclusive and environmentally aware. This vision guided her throughout her schooling and a 25-year career in public policy. Sue speaks about the history of Earth Day and its roots in toxics as well as how to activate your passion for the earth in a grassroots way.Sue works as a speaker, educator, and environmental advocate with a focus on the environment and climate change. Her recent book is Advocating for the Environment, How to Gather Your Power and Take Action.​An activist herself, Sue teaches part time at several colleges and remains actively engaged in advocacy work, serving on board of Defend Our Health, the steering committee of the Pine Tree Amendment Coalition and the policy committee for OurPower. She holds a BA in Human Ecology from College of the Atlantic, and MBA from the University of New Hampshire.​You can reach Sue through her website: www.sueinches.com.

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.

Episode 1Gail 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.