More ‘Forever Chemicals’ Reported in Products Sold in Maine

Advocates Decry Industry Lobbying to Repeal Most of Maine PFAS Products Law Portland, Maine – Bic razors, Sterno canned heat, Barbour jackets, and Epic Designers work pants and vests – these are a few of the thousands of brand name products sold in Maine that contain PFAS – the ‘forever chemicals’ that have widely polluted drinking…  Read more »

Defend Our Health welcomes new President and CEO

Portland, ME, January 23, 2024 – Defend Our Health is proud to announce the hiring of Emily Carey Perez de Alejo as the new President and Chief Executive Officer of the nonprofit public health and social justice organization. The organization’s founder and outgoing executive director, Mike Belliveau, will move into a new staff role as Founder and Senior…  Read more »

Serious Disease Burden Attributed to Plastics, New Study Says

50 thousand early deaths, 4 million cases of obesity, and 30 thousand intellectual disabilities among the harms caused every year by plastics, resulting in $250 billion in health care costs Widely used plastics are making Americans sick, disabled and die early, according to a new peer-reviewed scientific study published today in the Journal of the Endocrine Society. A…  Read more »

PFAS Use Widespread in Products Sold in Maine, Industry Reports Reveal

First-Ever Reports Reveal Use of ‘Forever Chemicals’ in Many Common Consumer Products Hair spray, shampoo, cosmetics, school supplies, swim suits, gloves, dog treats, and cookware are among the nearly 1,000 brand-name products sold in Maine that contain PFAS, according to a first-ever analysis of industry reports submitted last year under a Maine law passed in…  Read more »

EPA takes first steps to regulate highly dangerous chemical used to make plastic

Washington D.C.–Today, the Environmental Protection Agency announced that the chemical vinyl chloride is a candidate for high-priority designation under the Toxic Control Substances Act (TSCA). The announcement sets into motion a years-long process that could culminate in the designation of vinyl chloride as a high-priority chemical under TSCA. The first step in the process is…  Read more »

Diane Wilson, Fourth-Generation Shrimper, Protests Plastic Pollution – Goldman Environmental Prize Winner from Texas Speaks in Maine

Diane Wilson, an acclaimed author, fisherwoman and activist arrives in Maine today to speak out against petrochemical plastic pollution at two Maine events, just as the next round of negotiations on a Global Plastics Treaty to end plastic pollution in Nairobi, Kenya. Wilson is the director and founder of Calhoun County Resource Watch and the executive director of San…  Read more »

Plastics packaging continues to balloon, despite company commitments 

Today, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation released its fifth annual Global Commitment 2023 report, showing that signatories of the commitment will miss their own 2025 targets. The report illustrates how in 2022 Global Commitment signatories failed to bring down virgin plastic use meaningfully, and have not made significant progress to expand reuse systems. In response, Defend…  Read more »

Defend Our Health Calls for More from Coca-Cola

This week, the Coca-Cola Company announced a temporary program that will give customers free pizza and a plastic bottled Coca-Cola beverage, in return for their depositing empty plastic bottles, in select markets. The scheme purports to increase awareness of the company’s new 100% recycled PET bottles, also available only in select markets at this point,…  Read more »

“Everywhere chemicals” in organic products, conventional products, baby formula – unsafe supply chain

Chemicals known to harm pregnant women and children were found in cheese powders, formula, milk and cooking oils  What happened to Annie’s former commitment to eliminate phthalates that may be present in food packaging materials and food processing equipment? Portland, ME — A new scientific report co-authored by Defend Our Health and published in the Journal of Exposure Science and…  Read more »

Federal government concludes that common plastic endangers human health

U.S. EPA finds that the production of PET plastic poses an “unreasonable risk” to workers and fenceline communities from release of cancer-causing 1,4-dioxane PET plastic use for beverage bottles and polyester clothing must be phased out This week a panel of independent scientists began review of a draft supplemental risk evaluation prepared by the U.S.…  Read more »