Blog
Jane Bremmer is based in Western Australia (WA) and has worked for environmental health and justice for more than 25 years. As the Chair of Toxics Free Australia, Jane oversees the campaigns and administration of the organisation. With a strong background in toxics disputes and environmental justice, grounded in her own personal experience living next to ‘WA’s worst toxic site’, Jane works to empower communities to defend their human rights to clean air, water and soil through the principles of ‘community right to know’ and access to independent science and expertise. Her campaign work in Western Australia brought in the WA Contaminated Sites Act.
On behalf of Toxics Free Australia, Jane works collaboratively with the International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN) representing more than 700 public interest ngos globally – working for a toxics free future at the highest level with the International Stockholm, Rotterdam and Basel conventions and other international conventions aimed at protecting our environment and human health from chemicals, waste and pollution. Jane holds a BA (women’s studies) and AdvDip (Production and Design).
Lee Bell (MA ESD) has been a Technical and Policy Advisor for the International Pollution Elimination Network since 2011. Over the last 30 years he has authored many reports and articles on the impacts of mercury, Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) and plastic waste on the environment and human health. Recent publications and research on plastic waste include the hazardous waste streams and emissions associated with chemical recycling, incineration and co-firing of plastic waste in cement kilns. Current research includes the status of refuse derived fuel within the Basel Convention. Mr Bell is a member of several expert groups of the Basel, Stockholm and Minamata Conventions including the BAT BEP Expert Group of the Stockholm Convention where he is developing POP contaminated sites guidance.
Dr Mariann Lloyd -Smith (Phd Law) is a senior advisor to Toxics Free Australia. Now retired, and as the founder of the National Toxics Network, Marian is also a senior advisor to the International Pollutants Elimination Network. Mariann’s decades of work to improve Australia’s chemical regulation and uphold the human rights of Australians, people and communities all over the world to clean air, water and soil, saw her awarded the UN Gender Pioneer for Future Detoxified in 2021.
Dr Matt Landos is an expert scientific advisor on aquatic pollution for Toxics Free Australia. Dr Matt Landos holds a BVSc(Hons) MANZCVS(Aquatic Animal Health Chapter) and is the Adjunct Associate Professor, University of Queensland, School of Biological Sciences. Matt brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to Australia and internationally on the dire state of our fisheries, marine environment and its profound impacts on human health.
Dr Alison Bleaney is is a rural GP based in Tasmania and as an environmentalist realises that a healthy environment sustains healthy people and communities. For over 15 years, she has been particularly interested in water quality, pollution and the use of pesticides and wetting agents in the landscape and how these adversely affect the land, water, air and human health. Modern toxicology with low dose effects, non-monotonic response curves, endocrine disruption, immune dysfunction, epigenetic effects and their intergenerational impacts, are just a few of the issues she has worked on to try and convince Australian regulators to ensure safety testing and the principle of precaution when they allow chemicals/biocides into the environment. Climate change accentuates the issues of pollution whether it is pesticides, plastics or fossil fuels.
