Tag: pfas
Mark Hyland, Board Chair for Defend Our Health Speaks on PFAS in REI
I’ve been an REI member since 1973 and I still have some of my first favorite purchases, like this cotton anorak, I bought before I was even an REI member. It’s traveled around the world, including Antarctica, and doesn’t contain PFAS/PFOAS. I appreciate REI’s commitment to sustainability and their Opt Outside campaign. However, I’m surprised they… Read more »
2022 Priority Bills
PFAS Bills: LD 1911 “An Act To Prohibit the Contamination of Clean Soils with So-called Forever Chemicals.” This bill would ban the spreading of sludge and sludge-derived compost on farmland that contributes to PFAS contamination. It would also require that wastewater treatment facilities and other industry that discharge effluent into Maine’s waterways test that effluent for… Read more »
Maine Hearing: Experts & Impacted Residents Testify for Equity, Justice and Movement on Tackling PFAS ‘Forever Chemicals’
On Monday, legislators, impacted citizens, scientists and health advocates urged the Environment and Natural Resources Committee to continue to move the state forward in the fight against toxic PFAS, a group of man-made chemicals that have been linked to negative health impacts, including several types of cancer and decreased immune response to vaccines. Defend has… Read more »
Oh, Deer! Venison joins fish and beef on list of contaminated food in Maine
Last week, news broke that deer in central Maine showed high levels of PFAS, followed by Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife deer hunting advisory not to eat any venison harvested in the Fairfield area and to discard any deer killed there earlier in the season. The news shocked and angered many Maine hunters. But… Read more »
Dairy Reporter Gets the Inside Scoop on Toxic-Free Food Contact
Last week, Defend Our Health’s research analyst, Roopa Krithivasan, appeared on Dairy Reporter’s podcast Dairy Dialog to discuss Toxic-Free Food Contact, a new web-based resource that provides guidance to the food and beverage industry on how to identify safer and more sustainable food packaging, processing equipment and food service ware. The easy-to-use resource is, “Relevant… Read more »
Colby College Professor Calls For Federal Action on PFAS
This week, Dr. Véronique Plesch, a professor at Colby College and resident of Fairfield, Maine, shared her experience with PFAS contamination in the Portland Press Herald. Dr. Plesch is one of many Maine residents who have been affected by Maine’s “PFAS contamination crisis,” as she called it. After requesting a testing kit, Plesch discovered that the amount… Read more »
John Oliver and Danny DeVito Tackle PFAS on Last Week Tonight!
Spotlight on PFAS This week, we were thrilled to see 13-time Emmy Award winner John Oliver and actor Danny DeVito discuss the dangers of PFAS on Oliver’s popular HBO show Last Week Tonight! PFAS, a class of chemicals that stand for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are often used in food packaging and household products. High exposure… Read more »
Testing for PFAS in Fairfield: why transparency matters
If you’ve been following our work here at Defend Our Health, you know that we’ve been deeply involved with the widespread PFAS contamination in Fairfield, ME, since we found out that the past use of municipal and industrial sludge as fertilizer from the 1970s-2000s destroyed Fred Stone’s family dairy farm. From the start, we have joined… Read more »
Back to School – What’s in your dairy?
Dairy products are ubiquitous in kids’ lunchboxes and school meals – milk, yogurt, string cheese, boxed or pre-made mac and cheese — the list goes on. Kids aged 2-11 make up the largest age demographic of dairy consumers, consuming an average of 1.4 cups of milk a day. But as many of us prepare to send our… Read more »
Here’s what we’ve won!
Maine’s leading the nation by dumping a cancer-linked toxic chemical. The Maine Legislature passed a law to eliminate toxic PFAS from products we use every day. We’re the first state to get this done! (LD 1503) Maine will also protect our firefighters, whose risk of cancer is elevated by exposure to toxic chemicals. No longer… Read more »