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Environmental Public Health Commons

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Full-Text Articles in Environmental Public Health

Understanding Occupational Injury And Substance Use Issues Among Workers In The Shellfish And Lobster Industries, Tora Johnson, Katherine Weatherford Darling, Debra Kantor, Joseph Spiller, Oliver G. Jones, Lois-Ann Kuntz, Tara Casimir, Amy Dowley, Greyson Kurtz, Lauren Sachs, Linda Silka, Bridie Mcgreavy Dec 2023

Understanding Occupational Injury And Substance Use Issues Among Workers In The Shellfish And Lobster Industries, Tora Johnson, Katherine Weatherford Darling, Debra Kantor, Joseph Spiller, Oliver G. Jones, Lois-Ann Kuntz, Tara Casimir, Amy Dowley, Greyson Kurtz, Lauren Sachs, Linda Silka, Bridie Mcgreavy

Maine Policy Review

In 2022, American lobster (Homarus americanus) and softshell clam (Mya arenaria) harvests contributed $283 million to Downeast Maine’s economy, employing thousands of harvesters. Harvesting is grueling work. Pain from work-related injuries precedes most opioid deaths, and workers in fisheries are disproportionately at risk. Harvesters are typically self-employed and often uninsured or underinsured, complicating access to care. Prior studies have focused on injury risk or drug use among harvesters without revealing how injury, pain and substance use intertwine with cultural, social and regulatory factors. This study examined the socio-ecologically embedded injury/ pain/ substance use process with surveys of harvesters (n=106) and …


Reducing Plastic Pollution In The Ocean: Mycobuoys As A Potential Solution, Sue S. Van Hook Jan 2023

Reducing Plastic Pollution In The Ocean: Mycobuoys As A Potential Solution, Sue S. Van Hook

Maine Policy Review

Natural mushroom mycelium-based MycoBuoys are an alternative to ubiquitous plastic flotation devices used in Maine aquaculture, fisheries and harbors. They fit perfectly into a circular economic model where natural resources are borrowed for a specific purpose and are returned as elements at the end of product life. MycoBuoys may be composted or used as mulch where 100% of the material enhances soil nutrients upon decomposition. In contrast to this cradle-to-cradle product, currently ubiquitous Stryofoam buoys have expensive end life costs in terms of ecosystem and organismal health consequences. Styrene is a known carcinogen, and the foam particles degrade into smaller …


History Of Deer Herd Reduction For Tick Control On Maine’S Offshore Islands, Susan P. Elias, Benjamin B. Stone, Peter W. Rand, Charles B. Lubelczyk, Robert P. Smith Md Jan 2021

History Of Deer Herd Reduction For Tick Control On Maine’S Offshore Islands, Susan P. Elias, Benjamin B. Stone, Peter W. Rand, Charles B. Lubelczyk, Robert P. Smith Md

Maine Policy Review

The incidence of Lyme disease in Maine is associated with high abundance of blacklegged (deer) ticks, which in turn has been partly attributed to local overabundance of white-tailed deer. With evidence from Monhegan Island that the complete removal of deer reduced ticks and risk of contracting Lyme disease, nine other offshore communities initiated efforts to cull deer. We reviewed and summarized available histories of deer management on Maine’s offshore islands. Concern about Lyme disease provided the overarching impetus for deer culls. Culls mostly occurred on islands that have no regular firearms hunting season, island communities have been challenged to control …


Economic Assessment Of Children’S Health And The Environment In Maine, Mary E. Davis Jan 2010

Economic Assessment Of Children’S Health And The Environment In Maine, Mary E. Davis

Maine Policy Review

Reducing children’s exposure to environmental toxins is important for both moral and economic reasons. Mary Davis discusses the economic impact of envi­ronmentally related childhood illnesses in Maine, focusing on disease categories with fairly strong evidence connecting environmental pollution to childhood diseases: lead poisoning, asthma, neurobehavioral disorders, and cancer. Lead poisoning and neurobehavioral conditions are the most expen­sive because they lead to chronic diseases that are largely incurable and not easily treated. She concludes that state funding for initiatives aimed at reducing childhood exposure to environmental pollutants “would be money well spent.”


Why More Is Required To Address Maine’S Childhood Lead-Poisoning Problem, David Littell Jan 2002

Why More Is Required To Address Maine’S Childhood Lead-Poisoning Problem, David Littell

Maine Policy Review

Although largely hidden from the public eye, childhood lead poisoning has been identified as one of Maine’s leading environmental health problems. Recent data show not only that lead-poisoning levels are unacceptably high among Maine’s children, but also that screening rates are lower than recommended by national health organizations and lower than in other New England states. David Littell discusses why childhood lead poisoning is such a problem in Maine and what can be done to remedy the situation, providing a thorough examination of how children are exposed to lead and the magnitude of the problem. He reviews the state’s existing …


A Public Health View Of Environmental Regulation, John Graham Jan 1992

A Public Health View Of Environmental Regulation, John Graham

Maine Policy Review

The laws and regulations that govern the use of environmental resources have complicated effects on our society and our economy. Efforts to regulate environmental impacts are frequently controversial precisely because they have such complicated effects. No single perspective can adequately encompass all of the issues that arise in environmental regulation and environmental protection. Even the terms themselves suggest the fundamentally opposed philosophies that approach the assessment of environmental laws: While proponents of greater environmental activism emphasize the need to "protect" the environment, critics of more stringent controls emphasize that these laws "regulate" and limit the actions of individuals. At the …