Organizations Filed Purposes:
Defend Our Health works to create a world where all people are thriving, with equal access to safe food and drinking water, healthy homes, and products that are toxic-free and climate-friendly. We'll stand up for this right wherever it is threatened.
ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH PROGRAM:In 2020, we launched our new name, Defend Our Health, which more explicitly encapsulates the need for grassroots engagement and environmental justice in our intersectional work. We persuaded General Mills, as covered by the New York Times, to require its cheese suppliers for its Annie's Homegrown brand of mac 'n cheese to eliminate toxic phthalates from their food processing equipment (such as conveyor belts and plastic tubing) - this is the first major breakthrough corporate commitment achieved by the Toxic-Free Food Campaign. We ran a grassroots Toxic Bottle Cap Drive, collecting 300 metal bottle caps from a dozen states and Canada for testing for phthalates, which resulted in Brew Dr., a popular kombucha brand, to switch to non-toxic materials. Our summer organizing drive led by college interns in Maine resulted in 2,900 phone calls to raise awareness about safe drinking water. We identified 400 people with household wells and recruited about 100 volunteers who want to work with us on safe drinking campaigns to deliver environmental justice to low-wealth rural Mainers who rely on wells.
SUSTAINABLE ECONOMY PROGRAM:In 2020, we continued to promote the manufacture of safer chemicals from renewable, sustainable, biobased material, to replace toxic chemicals derived from petroleum. With the trade association Biobased Maine, we published a 20-page handbook, "Plants to Products: Renewable Materials Manufacturing a Maine Pathway to Prosperity." We also began research to reframe plastic pollution as a critical environmental health and climate justice concern, not simply an ocean litter problem. This framework will create collaborative opportunities to end uses of plastics that have the worst toxic hazards, climate impacts, and waste pollution.
Executives Listed on Filing
Total Salary includes financial earnings, benefits, and all related organization earnings listed on tax filing
| Name | Title | Hours Per Week | Total Salary |
|---|
| Michael Belliveau | PRESIDENT | 50 | $109,575 |
| Karen Turner | TREASURER | 2 | $0 |
| Kristin Jackson | DIRECTOR | 2 | $0 |
| Susan B Inches | DIRECTOR | 2 | $0 |
| Rev Richard L Killmer | DIRECTOR | 2 | $0 |
| Anthony Jaccarino | VICE CHAIR | 2 | $0 |
| Mark Hyland | CHAIR | 2 | $0 |
| Julie Franklin | DIRECTOR | 2 | $0 |
| Carla Dickstein | DIRECTOR | 2 | $0 |
| Ally Fulton | SECRETARY | 2 | $0 |
| Ryan Bouldin | DIRECTOR | 2 | $0 |
Data for this page was sourced from XML published by IRS (
public 990 form dataset) from:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/irs-form-990/202130989349300838_public.xml