About this Webinar

In this first session on per and poly fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), we will focus on identification of PFAS as a large group of chemicals, how PFAS are defined, how people are exposed to a small subset of the PFAS chemicals that are currently regulated in drinking water sources around New England. We will also discuss evidence for population health concerns, as well as efforts being taken in the region to address PFAS.

What you'll learn

At the end of the webinar, participants will be able to:

• Define PFAS and list 6-7 PFA chemicals of importance
• Identify the key exposure sources in people in New England
• Describe the health concerns associated with the 6-7 PFAS chemicals
• Discuss the efforts in New England and federally to address PFAS

Subject Matter Expert

• 
  

  Wendy Heiger-Bernays
  

More

Wendy Heiger-Bernays, PhD is Professor of Environmental Health at the BU School of Public Health where she has spent decades applying her expertise in toxicology and risk assessment to research and translation around environmental chemical exposures. She serves as Chair of her local Board of Health, as a member of the Massachusetts Toxics Use Reduction Act Science Advisory Board and is on the Science Advisory Chemicals Committee for the Federal EPA Toxics Substances Control Act.





Registration

Select the Enroll Me button below to register for this recording. If you have any trouble accessing the recording, contact support@nephtc.org.



Acknowledgement: This project is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of award 2 UB6HP31685‐05‐00 “Public Health Training Centers.” The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by HRSA, HHS or the U.S. Government.

About this Webinar

Over the past 45 years, Maine’s Bottle Bill program has been extremely effective at reducing litter, increasing recycling, creating jobs, funding charities, and reducing costs for municipalities and taxpayers. The Bottle Bill is a critical foundation for Maine’s recycling culture and remains as important and relevant as ever. Maine's legislature recently passed two bills to keep redemption centers in business and modernize the system. The discussions highlighted the special role that redemption centers play in keeping this program going, and the unique job opportunities they provide. Many of the owners do not turn much profit but do the work because they recognize it is environmental and social significance. The new laws will provide opportunity to further strengthen this program, reduce waste, and create more jobs.

What you'll learn

At the end of the recording, participants will be able to:

• Explain how the Bottle Bill supports jobs in Maine and what happens to the unclaimed deposits. 
  
• Compare effectiveness of recycling and litter reduction with other types of recycling programs.
• Discuss potential of recently passed and future legislation. 
  
  

Subject Matter Expert

• 
  

  Sarah Nichols
  Sustainable Maine Director
  
  

More

Sarah is a waste policy expert and leads NRCM’s local and state efforts to reduce waste and litter, encourage reuse, and increase recycling and composting in Maine. Prior to joining NRCM in 2014, she spent several years working to improve recycling programs in rural communities. She earned a master’s degree from the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at the University of California Santa Barbara, where she specialized in environmental policy, and has a bachelor’s degree from the University of New Hampshire in Environmental & Resource Economics. Sarah is from Bath and resides in Cumberland.

• 
  

  Shandra Rubchinuk
  Co-Owner of Jansel Redemption Center

More

Shandra has been in Maine for 22 years and lives in Winthrop. She opened a children’s second hand store in order to be at home with her children and saw a need to reduce reuse and recycle. The store has been open for 10 years, children Luke & Aalayah are now 11 & 13. Her partner Jason worked for his uncle for 23 years counting and sorting bottles at a redemption center that was open for 40 years. His uncle finally retired and the two opened JANSEL Redemption center in Jan of 2023. They streamlined the process and are busier than ever.

• 
  

  Mike Noel
  Public Affairs Director, TOMRA

More

Mike is a corporate sustainability and public affairs expert with working experience across the public, private and civil sectors. At TOMRA, the world’s largest provider of recycling and reuse technology, Mike advises policymakers on packaging and textiles waste management and reuse policies. TOMRA operates in over 40 jurisdictions around the world with refillable and single-use container deposit return systems and EPR policies. The first project of TOMRA’s Reuse venture includes operating a reusable take-out packaging program in Denmark. Mike is the co- author of “Rewarding Recycling: Learnings from the World’s Highest Performing Deposit Systems”. Prior to joining TOMRA, Mike was a Strategy Director at Futerra where he advised multinationals including Google, Target and 3M on their circular economy and climate strategies. Mike studied Marketing and Environmental Policy at Fordham University where he led a successful campaign to establish the University's Sustainable Business program. Mike is based in Connecticut where he is busy trying to get his 5 year old twins to eat their vegetables.

Registration

Select the Enroll Me button below to register for this recording. If you have any trouble accessing the recording, contact support@nephtc.org.

Acknowledgement: This project is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Deparment of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of award 2 UB6HP31685‐05‐00 “Public Health Training Centers.” The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by HRSA, HHS or the U.S. Government.

About this Webinar

In this Webinar series, you will get to know two important environmental health issues: extreme heat and air pollution. We will discuss important concepts and research methods through case-studies on specific projects conducted in the City of Chelsea, Massachusetts.

What you'll learn

At the end of the webinar, participants will be able to:

• Explain key environmental health concepts, risk factors for various environmental exposures, vulnerable populations, environmental (in)justice, quantitative research methods, qualitative research methods, and community-engaged approaches.
• Demonstrate a deeper understanding of two important environmental exposures of concern in the context of an environmental justice community: extreme heat and air pollution.
• Identify facilitators and barriers that different community partners face when communicating environmental health risks.  
• Discuss relevant environmental health policy and regulatory applications. 

Subject Matter Experts

• 
  

  Alina McIntyre
  

More

Alina McIntyre is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Environmental Health at the Boston University School of Public Health. After earning a Bachelor’s degree in both Community Health and Spanish at Tufts University, Alina completed a Master’s degree in Environmental Health and Engineering at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her research is part of the Chelsea and East Boston Heat Study (C-HEAT), a collaborative project between GreenRoots, Inc. and BUSPH. She is specifically involved in community-engaged heat and air pollution exposure research, drawing on environmental epidemiology, exposure assessment, and qualitative methods.





Registration

Select the Enroll Me button below to register for this recording. If you have any trouble accessing the recording, contact support@nephtc.org.



Acknowledgement: This project is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of award 2 UB6HP31685‐05‐00 “Public Health Training Centers.” The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by HRSA, HHS or the U.S. Government.

About this Webinar

In this Webinar series, you will get to know two important environmental health issues: extreme heat and air pollution. We will discuss important concepts and research methods through case-studies on specific projects conducted in the City of Chelsea, Massachusetts.

What you'll learn

At the end of the webinar, participants will be able to:

• Explain key environmental health concepts, risk factors for various environmental exposures, vulnerable populations, environmental (in)justice, quantitative research methods, qualitative research methods, and community-engaged approaches.
• Demonstrate a deeper understanding of two important environmental exposures of concern in the context of an environmental justice community: extreme heat and air pollution.
• Identify facilitators and barriers that different community partners face when communicating environmental health risks.  
• Discuss relevant environmental health policy and regulatory applications. 

Subject Matter Experts

• 
  

  Alina McIntyre
  

More

Alina McIntyre is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Environmental Health at the Boston University School of Public Health. After earning a Bachelor’s degree in both Community Health and Spanish at Tufts University, Alina completed a Master’s degree in Environmental Health and Engineering at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her research is part of the Chelsea and East Boston Heat Study (C-HEAT), a collaborative project between GreenRoots, Inc. and BUSPH. She is specifically involved in community-engaged heat and air pollution exposure research, drawing on environmental epidemiology, exposure assessment, and qualitative methods.

• 
  

  Bianca Navarro Bowman
  

More

Bianca Navarro Bowman is the Climate Justice Coordinator at GreenRoots, Inc. She is passionate about building community knowledge, power, and leadership to combat the unequal distribution of the effects of climate change. At GreenRoots, she leads and supports projects that focus on centering resident involvement and perspectives in advancing community climate resilience and adaptation. Bianca loves working with community members and coworkers to improve the ability of EJ populations to safely navigate increasing summer heat temperatures, flood impacts, and decarbonization efforts that threaten to leave low- and middle-income folks and people of color behind in the clean energy transition. She is originally from the Washington, DC area and graduated from the College of William & Mary in Virginia. She studied English Literature and Environmental Science & Policy and has a background in community-based citizen science research, environmental field work and forest fire management work.





Registration

Select the Enroll Me button below to register for this recording. If you have any trouble accessing the recording, contact support@nephtc.org.



Acknowledgement: This project is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of award 2 UB6HP31685‐05‐00 “Public Health Training Centers.” The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by HRSA, HHS or the U.S. Government.

About this Webinar

Maine's aged building stock creates wide spread health challenges including asthma, exposures to toxins in building materials, stress in physical discomfort and vulnerability in extreme weather and anxiety of about heating and cooling costs. The barriers to retrofitting are multi-fold, the rewards of retrofitting combine the health benefits with carbon and reduction as part of our path to our carbon goals. Equitable approaches to improving the built environment are critical. passivhausMAINE is exploring bundling funding sources for systemic approaches to whole building renovation. We are preparing the case for cross/multi department communication and systems to ease the funding barriers and structure scalable retrofits across the state through pilot projects in Freeport and Lewiston, Maine. 

What you'll learn

After attending this webinar, participants will be able to:

• Demonstrate the potential for wide scale retrofits through multi-agency funding approaches.
• Analyse the comprehensive benefits of building retrofits to physical and mental health and the corollary benefits of carbon and energy reduction. 
• Explore the overlapping issues of housing, gender, racial, education and economic justice. 

Subject Matter Experts

• 
  

  Naomi Beal
  

More

Naomi Beal is the Executive Director and founding member of passivhausMAINE [phME] and a founding board member of the Passive House Network. Naomi embraces the challenge of developing phME into a sustainable and impactful organisation through local, national, and international partnerships. Naomi believes Maine’s economic development can be fostered through a framework of building efficiency and innovative and traditional wood products and prioritizes equitable retrofits as both climate mitigation and adaptation. Naomi lives in South Freeport, ME.

Registration

Select the Enroll Me button below to register for this recording. If you have any trouble accessing the recording, contact support@nephtc.org.

Acknowledgement: This project is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of award 2 UB6HP31685‐05‐00 “Public Health Training Centers.” The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by HRSA, HHS or the U.S. Government.