Marina Schauffler

Climate Change/Energy / Sustainable Practices / Technology / Transportation/Travel

March 12, 2023

Navigating toward Cleaner Transportation

With global carbon pollution at an all-time high and transportation the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in Maine and the U.S., it’s encouraging to see the auto industry pivoting to electric vehicles (EVs) and more people acquiring them. Maine is installing new...

Health / Pollution/Waste

February 12, 2023

Microplastics: A Vast, Barely Visible Problem

Reading Matt Simon’s disturbing new book, “A Poison Like No Other: How Microplastics Corrupted Our Planet and Our Bodies,” I found a question running through my head like a refrain: Why did we not...

Ecological Values / Health

January 15, 2023

‘Forever chemicals’ expose the need for systemic change

Going back in time can reveal how far we still have to progress. In researching per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) for a recent article series, I found myself ricocheting between the present and the...

Economics / PFAS Project / Pollution/Waste

December 18, 2022

The Price of PFAS

Maine’s strong policy response could mitigate future expenses, but short-term expenditures are proliferating and many costs remain untallied. Widespread contamination from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) “has the potential to impose an unsustainable burden...

Economics / PFAS Project / Pollution/Waste

December 18, 2022

The Long Road to Recovering PFAS Damages

With Maine facing escalating costs from contamination due to ‘forever chemicals,’ work is under way to recoup some losses. Shortly after hearing from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection that their well should be...

PFAS Project

November 27, 2022

Forever Exposure, Forever Anxiety

Found in water, air, soil, food, consumer products and work settings, ‘forever chemicals’ pose risks to both physical health and mental well-being At the end of Joy Road in Fairfield, a steep dead-end road...

PFAS Project

November 27, 2022

Reducing Your PFAS Body Burden

Limiting new sources of exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) can gradually lower your accumulated chemical load, aptly known as your body burden. PFAS compounds can linger in bodies for decades, with concentrations...

PFAS Project

November 27, 2022

Maine’s Law to Reduce PFAS in Products Is off to a Slow Start

Sixteen months after Maine enacted a first-in-the-nation law aimed at eliminating use of most per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) by 2030, the phased-in ban faces its first major milestone. By January 1, 2023, manufacturers...

PFAS Project

October 23, 2022

A Spreading Problem

How PFAS got into soils and food systems Risks from ‘forever chemicals’ have ended a half-century of spreading sludge onto Maine farmland and raised unanswered questions about contamination of foods. “Other states in general...

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