Martha A. Eastman, APRN, BC, The University of Maine, 536 Union Street, Bangor, ME 04401-3751, (207)942-4311, eastman@maine.edu

The lack of political will and a water pollution control policy along with economic hardship played major roles in Maine’s environmental and public health in the early 20th Century. Maine’s slow action to protect its rivers and coastline from pollution threatened the health of citizens as well as visitors. Later a federal relief program during the Depression undermined food safety regulations by providing financial incentives for fishermen to ignore shellfish sanitation requirements, putting customers at risk for food-borne disease. As lumberjacks struggled to make a living in the Maine woods and clam diggers scavenged on the coast, they, along with their families, communities and customers often encountered health risks as a result of water pollution. Lacking the authority to enforce pollution control measures, the Maine State Board of Health advocated in 1915 that citizens in towns troubled by unsafe water supplies complain to the newly created Public Utilities Commission. Although Great Northern Paper Company had created an innovative employee health and welfare program, like most other factories they regularly dumped industrial waste into the river. Despite regular typhoid fever outbreaks in towns along Maine rivers, downstream residents rarely complained. This presentation explores the intersections between local citizen’s economic needs and those of a rural state at a time when Maine’s public health services were still emerging. The tensions between the need for economic justice and public health activism to protect the environment will provide insights for current debates regarding food and water safety and social justice.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe water pollution in Maine in the early 20th Century.
• Describe how economic concerns influenced environmental health in rural Maine communities.
• Discuss how public health history informs current activism.

Keywords: History, Environmental Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.