View from Fukushima: Pat Sutton’s statement to Parliament in Japan

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SF Bay Area PSR member Patrice Sutton and President Dr. Bob Gould attended the IPPNW World Conference in Hiroshima Japan and subsequently participated in an “eyewitness” delegation to Fukushima. Afterward, they participated in a press conference in Tokyo. Ms. Sutton spoke on a panel along with Tillman Rush, IPPNW Co-President; Jeffrey Patterson, Immediate Past President of Physicians for Social Responsibility; and Arun Mitra, President of the Indian Doctors for Peace and Development. Below is Ms. Sutton’s statement from the press conference.

Click here to read IPPNW’s press release on the World Congress August 24.

Click here to read IPPNW’s recommendations released August 29.

Statement of Patrice Sutton, MPH

San Francisco-Bay Area Physicians for Social Responsibility

At the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) Press Conference at Japanese Diet (Parliament)

August 29, 2012

I am deeply humbled by our journey to Fukushima and full of gratitude to the people of Japan who have welcomed us into their lives and provided us with the opportunity to witness the health impacts of the nuclear disaster at Fukushima.

Our delegation has listened to the experience and perspectives of a diverse cross-section of Japanese society, including local leaders, community members, scientists, advocates, physicians, academics, shopkeepers, an organic farmer and government officials.

Our journey took us through the beautiful Japanese countryside that is, paradoxically, the entry point for observing the local and devastating impacts of a nuclear power disaster.

I will be forever changed by this journey.

I came to Fukushima knowing the science that describes the health impacts of exposure to ionizing radiation. I left knowing that a nuclear power plant explosion breaks apart more than DNA. I saw that a nuclear power plant explosion also breaks apart the social fabric that binds families and communities.

I saw that the adverse health consequences of the nuclear catastrophe at Fukushima touch all aspects of daily life and that these consequences will unfold over time.

Some of the adverse health consequences of the nuclear disaster can be observed now. These adverse health impacts include jobs that have either disappeared or involve extreme danger, especially for vulnerable populations who must trade their futures for a present paycheck. Today’s health impacts can be seen in the dislocation of families, the separation of children from their parents, the separation of the elderly from the young who are their source of joy and hope, the separation of friends and co-workers based on false beliefs that stigmatize people. The scientific evidence is clear that these social consequences of exposure to ionizing radiation are powerful determinants of health.

Other adverse health impacts will come later. The science is clear that there is no safe level of exposure to ionizing radiation, and that even small doses spread among large populations will predictably lead to excess cancers and other illnesses in the years to come. It is also critical to remember that as one official put it, “The accident is not completed.” There is a serious and on-going chance of catastrophe at Reactor # 4 where spent fuel rests on a foundation that is highly vulnerable to the next earthquake.

Finally, as scientists and health professionals we know that the nuclear power disaster at Fukushima will ultimately be paid for by future generations. The capacity of the land to produce healthy food for generations to come has been severed in some areas. The mounds of blue plastic that cover the radioactive waste in Fukushima are inter-generational problems for which we do not have a solution.

Turning on a light to read to our children at bedtime should not require that we sacrifice the health of future generations. This is a false choice. There are safer solutions to our global need for energy.

Our delegation leaves Japan reinvigorated in our efforts to prevent the tragic public health impacts of the nuclear power catastrophe at Fukushima.

We believe there is only one pathway to prevention … to bring a global end to our reliance on nuclear energy. After the nuclear disaster in the U.S. at Three Mile Island the American Public Health Association, the largest public health association in the world, called for a moratorium on building nuclear power plants and urged that we re-direct our efforts to sustainable solutions to energy production. The subsequent tragedies at Chernobyl and Fukushima only underscore our need to urgently seek a new pathway to energy conservation and production.

We leave Japan committed to helping to usher in an era in which energy production sustains rather than harms our children, our families and our communities now and for generations to come.

Thank you.

Foreclose on the Bomb Not the People August 5!

On August 5th, from 4-6pm, join peace, justice and environmental advocates to “Foreclose on the Bomb, Not the People” at a major demonstration at the Livermore nuclear weapons Lab. This event will commemorate the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan at the very place where the government is spending billions of dollars to develop new and modified nuclear weapons. This year’s event will highlight the economic reality of ever-increasing nuclear weapons spending while people’s basic needs go unmet.

The event is held in solidarity with the Japanese Hibakusha (atomic bomb survivors), and all victims of the nuclear cycle, from Hiroshima to Fukushima to Livermore. Expect amazing singers, musicians, artists, speakers, peace booths and more.

Gather at 4pm across the street from Livermore Lab at Wm. Payne Park, located near I-580 on Vasco Rd. and Patterson Pass Rd. The commemoration will be held in a grassy area, under shade trees, with a procession to the Lab immediately following. Carpools and a special bus pick-up from the metropolitan Bay Area are being planned. Check the Tri-Valley Cares website for more details or call (925) 443-7148.

Sponsored by American Friends Service Committee, Asian Americans for Peace & Justice, Bay Area United for Peace & Justice, East Bay Peace Action, Livermore Con- version Project, Mt. Diablo Peace & Justice Center, No Nukes Action, Peace Action West, SF Bay Area PSR,  Tri-Valley CAREs, and Western States Legal Foundation.

Congratulations to Dr. Bob Gould on His Retirement from Kaiser!

Dr. Bob Gould, President of SF Bay Area PSR since 1989, retired from the Pathology Department at San Jose Kaiser after 31 years of service. “Bob is the epitome of the ideal physician advocate who has managed a career and activism at the local, state, national and international levels.  I hope he has saved up his energy to continue to work for a better world as I know he will continue to exercise his passion, his inspiration, and his generosity of spirit for the sake of us all,” said Dr. Catherine Thomasson, Executive Director, National PSR.

Dr. Gould has been a national and regional leader in PSR for more than two decades. In addition to serving as President of SF Bay Area PSR for 23 years, he has served on the national board of directors of PSR since 1993 and been Co-Chair of National PSR Board’s Social Justice Committee since 2007. Dr. Gould served on the Executive Committee from 1994-2006; was President of National PSR in 2003; and was Chairperson of National PSR Board’s Security Committee from 2005-2006.

Beyond PSR, Dr. Gould has been an active member of the Environmental Committee of the Santa Clara County Medical Association (SCCMA) since 1992, a leader in the Peace Caucus of American Public Health Association (APHA) since 1986, and has authored numerous publications. Dr. Gould was listed as one of Santa Clara County’s “Top 400 Physicians” in peer-review surveys published in San Jose Magazine in 2001 through 2007. The SCCMA awarded him its ”Outstanding Contribution in Community Service” award in 2001, and this June he will receive  SCCMA’s award for “Outstanding Contribution to the Medical Association.”

Dr. Peter Joseph’s Response to New York Times Letter to the Editor on Nuclear Power

The letter below was written in response to the New York Times Letter to the Editor “Invitation to a Dialogue: Using Nuclear Energy.”  Dr. Joseph submitted his response, but it was not published.

Re: Invitation to a Dialogue: Using Nuclear Energy

Why is it that nuclear proponents always cite our seemingly insatiable demand for more energy while never mentioning its elasticity, the potential for massive improvement in efficiency of use, and the potential for a revolution in production and distribution of clean energy? Posing as “realists” they invariably overstate the arrogant assurances that “this time it will be safe,” the waste can be safely managed, and no bombs will grow stealthily from the fuel stream. Tell that to the Israelis now nervously fingering the safeties on their nukes as Iran, under the guise of wanting clean nuclear electricity, builds its reactors, also known as bomb factories. This world does not need more Plutonium floating around, even with Bin Laden at the bottom of the Indian Ocean.

Each nuclear power plant costs around $10 billion, and counting inevitable cost and time over -runs, takes a decade to build. Oh, has anyone figured out how to take one apart yet? How is that financed? We don’t have that kind of time according to the climate scientists and the IEA, who give us just a few years to get it right. Besides, who wants one one in their neighborhood? Can you imagine in a post-Fukushima world what a new nuke would do to property values over wide area? The Realtors alone would go crazy.

Now that the public is not so naive and gullible about nuclear power’s too-cheap-to-meter amazing benefits, it’s renaissance faces high hurdles without massive public subsidies. If it’s so great, let the “free market” work its magic without government (i.e. public) loan guarantees, and while we’re at it let them pay their own malpractice insurance, like I do, by getting rid of Price-Anderson. Why then not give those subsidies to a nascent industry that actually deserves it so that we –modern civilization — can live like every other creature on this planet: within its energy budget. Spend those billions on renewables, ignite a clean tech revolution in the US before we are eating out of the bowls of the Chinese tech industry.

Given that there is not enough money in the universe to build enough nukes to make a serious dent in carbon emissions, the real choice is between nukes and energy efficiency/renewable investments to stimulate rapid deployment of distributed clean energy production. I vote for clean and green, and if I have to reduce my consumption, well, after Pearl Harbor Americans did so willingly to support the war effort. Apparently that felt good according to folk lore. This IS war. It’s a war on carbon. A war for  survival of civilization as we’ve come to know it. Let’s not let our great civilization become too lazy to fail.

Put a steadily rising price on carbon, refund the money to households, get rid of subsidies to fossil industries and unleash the massive amounts of corporate cash just waiting for the Next Big Thing. The old nukes are just not ready for their come back. Try again when their next generation is ready for prime time.  Locate the first one on The National Mall and the second in Central Park. Then we shall see who’s the fairest of them all.

Peter G. Joseph, M.D.
San Anselmo, CA

World Premier Screening of Fukushima, Never Again

Screening of Fukushima, Never Again and presentation by Dr. Robert Gould, SF Bay Area PSR President, on “Health Dangers of Nuclear Power/Weapons”

Sunday, February 12 at 3pm
Redstone Building: 2940 16th St./Capp St. San Francisco

$10 (no one turned away due to shortage of funds)
57.40 running time

English and Japanese captions
Production Of Labor Video Project
Sponsored by No Nukes Action Committee

“Fukushima, Never Again” tells the story of the Fukushima nuclear plant meltdowns in north east Japan in March of 2011 and exposes the cover-up by Tepco and the Japanese government. This is the first film that interviews the Mothers Of Fukushima, nuclear power experts and trade unionists who are fighting for justice and the protection of the children and the people of Japan and the world.

The residents and citizens were forced to buy their own geiger counters and radiation dosimeters in order to test their communities to find out if they were in danger. The government said contaminated soil in children’s school grounds was safe and then when the people found out it was contaminated and removed the top soil, the government and TEPCO refused to remove it from the school grounds.

It also relays how the nuclear energy program for “peaceful atoms” was brought to Japan under the auspices of the US military occupation and also the criminal cover-up of the safety dangers of the plant by TEPCO and GE management which built the plant in Fukushima. It also interviews Kei Sugaoka, the GE nulcear plant inspector from the bay area who exposed cover-ups in the safety at the Fukushima plant and was retaliated against by GE.

This documentary allows the voices of the people and workers to speak out about the reality of the disaster and what this means not only for the people of Japan but the people of the world as the US government and nuclear industry continue to push for more new plants and government subsidies. This film breaks the information blockade story line of the corporate media in Japan, the US and around the world that Fukushima is over.

Victory on clean cars!

On Friday January 27th, the California Air Resources Board unanimously voted to adopt advanced clean car standards.  SF Bay Area PSR was part of the advocacy effort to reduce air pollution from cars sold in our state: we stood with more 20 health and medical organizations in a letter urging CARB to adopt the clean car standards.

Our chapter was part of another recent effort that culminated just last month in CARB’s unanimous decision to reject oil industry attempts to weaken the state’s low carbon fuel standard (LCFS).  SF Bay Area PSR and 26 other health and medical organizations signed on to a letter in support of the LCFS.  The LCFS, which requires a 10 percent reduction in the carbon content of fuels by 2020, will contribute to the fight against climate change and encourage a shift to healthier transportation options such as renewable energy and hydrogen, as well as advanced biofuels, which will reduce the devastating impacts of vehicle pollution on the health of Californians.

Below is a press release by the American Lung Association in regard to CARB’s January action on clean cars.

American Lung Association In California Applauds Historic CARB Decision On Advanced Clean Car Standards

Statement by Jane Warner

President and CEO, American Lung Association in California

The American Lung Association in California applauds today’s historic California Air Resources Board (CARB) vote to adopt advanced clean car standards that will transform California’s vehicle fleet, promote cleaner fuels and improve public health.  Under these strong new rules, cars sold in our state will produce dramatically less pollution, cause fewer asthma attacks and less lung damage, and cut our dependence on dirty oil.  This decision today is a victory for everyone in California, but especially for the millions of individuals living with asthma or other lung illnesses.

Today’s “win-win” action again demonstrates California’s strong commitment to leading the country toward cutting-edge clean air technologies.  The standards are a win for public health because they will reduce a leading source of harmful pollution that leads to health emergencies such as hospital and emergency room visits, asthma attacks and other lung illnesses, heart attacks, strokes, and premature deaths.  Research conducted by the American Lung Association in California shows that California can save billions of dollars each year and avoid thousands of asthma attacks and lung illnesses each year when these new standards are fully implemented.  Each advanced vehicle produced under this regulation will help to bring cleaner, healthier air.

The American Lung Association in California supports the entire package of regulations, but is calling special attention to the importance of the Zero Emission Vehicle program.  Today’s expansion of the ZEV program will ratchet up the numbers of electric vehicles on the road today to almost 1.5 million vehicles.  Zero emission vehicles provide the greatest health and air quality benefits to the residents of California and are the best solution for our pollution and climate change problems.  California’s future must be a zero emission future.  Because of the importance of these rules, we call on the board to track the numbers of zero emission vehicles produced under this regulation very closely and ensure the regulation lives up to its promise.

Given the importance of continued progress to ratchet down on particle pollution that causes serious harm to lung health, we support the new, stronger particle pollution standard included in the package and applaud the board’s resolve to study the possibility of accelerating implementation of that standard.

Thanks to the board’s  action today, millions of cleaner vehicles will roll off production lines and into California neighborhoods over the next 13 years.  While there is much more work to be done in the fight for clean air, today is a day to celebrate less smog, less soot, less carbon pollution and less dependence on dirty oil in California’s future.

Interview with Lena Brook, Outgoing Senior Program Associate

By Emily Galpern

What have been the highlights of your work at SF Bay Area PSR?

I’ve been with SF Bay Area PSR for 5½ years and have enjoyed immensely working with the “Healthy Food in Health Care” Campaign.  I was brought on as the northern California coordinator of that work.  One of most gratifying experiences has been to see this campaign grow and evolve and to see how much Lucia and I have provided leadership both locally and nationally. When I first took this job, we had a lot of explaining to do about why a health care facility should engage around food; now they come to us! Or, if we approach them, it’s for much more higher-level discussions; the foundation has been set, both by us and because there has been an explosion of media coverage and education around food issues in this country.

Lucia and I have tried to seed a lot of interesting projects in the SF Bay Area and to bring it to our colleagues in other parts of country. We partner with hospitals, who then pilot these projects, and we get to see the projects grow. The “Balanced Menus Challenge” is a perfect example of what one small organization can do locally that gets picked up by a broader range of allied interests: it can really change the discussion and amplify the work in a powerful way.

How do you see the role of physicians in this work?

I think that the connection between food and health outcomes is still tenuous for a lot of people working in the health care sector. There’s a tremendous amount of work to be done to connect the operational home for food service with the clinical side of a health care institution. This disjuncture is slowly being bridged at health care facilities.

Clinicians have a powerful role to play in that integration. PSR’s “Food Matters” is a perfect illustration of how clinicians can impact health care facilities’ approach to food. Clinicians, including doctors, nurses and dieticians, have a lot of power in a health care institution. When doctors want something, the administration pays attention, whereas, unfortunately, Food Services Directors won’t necessarily be heard. Clinicians can be advocates at their respective institutions and make reform toward sustainability a much easier path. They also have a broader role to play as food systems advocates in the way they interact with their own patients around food issues and the way they engage with their communities.  Kaiser Permanente’s Dr. Preston Maring is a perfect example of how a doctor can contribute to a hospital’s approach to food.

Food Matters provides the opportunity for physicians to speak in an informed way on food in the public policy arena and to media. I’d love to see dozens of doctors speaking on these issues.  PSR has incredible power to help realize this vision because they have an extensive network nationally, due to their regional members and contacts. I have a lot of faith that as Food Matters takes off, there’s going to be a great opportunity for PSR to assert itself.

What are your hopes for the organization?

I would love to see PSR’s capacity to mobilize the clinical community grow and expand and for them to own this subset of advocacy. With health care reform on the horizon, and prevention at core of that reform, we’re going to see a radical shift in the health care sector, and food will hopefully be at the center. PSR is really well positioned to assert itself as a leader.

Do you have any last words to share?

I’ve really appreciated working with everyone who I have met at and through SF Bay Area PSR. Their commitment and dedication is impressive. They’ve been at it for a long time, and they don’t lose that spark, the fire in their commitment, which I find amazing. I’ve deeply appreciated the supportive environment that PSR offers for its employees, especially for parents of young children. It stands out to me as being fairly unique. I am grateful for a positive experience, and I look forward to working with the SF PSR team again one way or another the future.

Appreciations from SF Bay Area PSR Board and Staff

Dr. Bob Gould, SF Bay Area PSR President says, “Lena has done such exceptional work with PSR, and I really appreciate the major accomplishments she’s left for us to build on. Her work in partnership with Lucia Sayre on “Healthy Food in Health Care” has been groundbreaking, both on its own obvious merits as well as how it fits into our climate change efforts to reduce hospitals’ environmental footprints. I want to underscore that the results of Lena’s work have not just accrued to the SF Bay Area chapter of PSR, but have been groundbreaking for our organization nationwide. I wish Lena the absolute best in all of her endeavors.”

SF Bay Area PSR Co-Director Lucia Sayre says, “Lena has been a pleasure to work with over the past 5 ½ half years. She is a passionate, smart, and creative organizer who cares deeply about the health of our food systems. During her years at SF Bay Area PSR, Lena led several collaborative efforts in our food work, such as the “Balanced Menus Challenge” and the “Hospital Leadership Team,” that have emerged as models for the national “Healthy Food in Health Care” campaign. She also helped to cultivate many important relationships with key partners and organizations throughout the state of California and nationally that will benefit our sustainable food in health care work for years to come. We will miss her at SF Bay Area PSR and wish her well in her next adventure.”

50th Anniversary Interview with Dr. Robert Gould!

What does the 50^th anniversary of PSR signify?

The anniversary marks the half-century of work that PSR has done to articulate the primary public health strategy of preventing nuclear war from ever happening. The physicians who founded PSR 50 years ago were part of a larger mass movement within the U.S. and worldwide that had developed in response to the twin explosions of nuclear weapons in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The founding of PSR signified a watershed event for physicians, in which they broke through the usual confines of dealing with patient health on a one-to-one basis, and recognized that the impact of a thermonuclear exchange would defy any ability for physicians and society to adequately deal with the consequences. Therefore, physicians had to step out of the traditional limitations of a doctor/patient relationship and take political positions to prevent any such exchange from happening. The founding of PSR marks the twin concepts of taking a primary public health approach and becoming politically involved to do so.

This anniversary highlights this important record of physician action against nuclear weapons. It also reminds us that we’re a long way from being able to abolish nuclear weapons, given many nations’ desires to possess them for political power. The 50^th anniversary allows us to celebrate what we’ve done up to this point and to challenge what’s ahead.

Can you talk about the founding of SF Bay Area PSR and what the chapter has accomplished since its inception?

SF Bay Area PSR was founded around 1980, after the nuclear disaster at Three Mile Island. Members of our chapter, like the newly revitalized national organization, initially focused on the dangers of nuclear power, but then we reconnected these issues with nuclear weapons, given the ascendancy of the “winnable nuclear war” strategies of the early Reagan Administration. SF Bay Area PSR has been one of the leading chapters over the years in maintaining a strong critique of U.S. foreign and military policies that have impeded our goal for the abolition of nuclear weapons.

As such, in general our chapter has placed the struggle against nuclear weapons within a framework that questions militarism overall, very much in line with the politics of the SF Bay Area. Our security work has not only focused on the details of U.S. foreign and military policy, but also the significant public and environmental health issues involved with the weapons, and the related budgetary impacts on our communities. We have focused on the health impacts of nuclear weapons at all phases; not only detonation, but issues related to production, storage, transport, and deployment. We’ve done a large amount of work in collaboration with partners such as TriValley Cares and Western States Legal Foundation to deal with nuclear weapons projects in our own back yard, particularly weapons development and related environmental issues at the Lawrence Livermore Lab. We’ve been very involved in challenging their plans to expand weapons work and highlighting potential health issues related to radioactive and other toxic releases from legacy lab operations

What have been some highlights of your involvement in PSR?

Starting in the early 1990s, the entire organization of PSR, national and chapters, recognized the significant dangers of impending climate change and toxic degradation of the environment. We began to develop a broad environmental and public health program that went beyond the environmental and health impacts of nuclear weapons. This more general environmental health work is probably at present the most prominent work of our chapter, in terms of the number of our projects and coalition partners. Addressing such environmental issues has given us renewed public prominence and also permitted us to raise nuclear weapons issues among our constituents in fresh and accessible ways. I think that over the last decade we’ve become well-respected partners on environmental health and security issues, and we cherish our real base in our community.

What are next steps you see for the chapter?
We are currently facing incredible challenges because of the political situation in Washington. I expect that much of our work, given the blockage at the national level, will be with local partners such as Health Care Without Harm around a variety of environmental issues that cross a lot of constituencies.

Given the significant challenges in our country with regard to unemployment and budget cuts for basic health and social needs, I personally think that more of our work needs to be integrated into a larger social justice framework, both due to the merits of the social justice issues themselves and also to be able to reach and connect with people who are deeply involved in struggling to survive and support their families. We need to meet people where they are. We have to talk about the hundreds of billions of dollars going to subsidize nuclear power, and to support conventional and nuclear weapons programs, that are not going to essential services or to addressing climate change in any fundamental way, particularly in a manner that could provide good, “green” jobs.

What can supporters do? 

We invite people to work with us by joining our speakers bureau; volunteering to bring our work with Health Care Without Harm to their hospitals; participating in visits to local Congressional representatives and state legislators, as well as important hearings on our issues in Sacramento; and submitting Op-Eds and letters to Editors. And we continue to appreciate the very generous financial support we’ve had from our membership, and hope they can step up at times like this.

Can you share some words about Dr. Victor Sidel, who is coming to celebrate PSR’s 50^th anniversary with our local chapter?

Vic Sidel, as well as his colleagues who founded PSR, including Bernard Lown, Jack Geiger, Sid Alexander and Herb Abrams, represent to me some of the most inspiring people I’ve had the good fortune to meet. Vic has in many ways been a real mentor to me, in terms of highlighting the importance of being knowledgeable about the science that underscores our work, and, above all, having the courage to speak out on all of the health and environmental issues that face us. He remains a model to me and it’s been a profound privilege to work with him all these years, within the Peace Caucus of the American Public Health Association, IPPNW and PSR.

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SF PSR Steering Committee Member, Dr. Jeff Ritterman, Speaks out about Antibiotic Resistance and Speaks Up For Clinical Advocacy

SF PSR Steering Committee member, Dr. Jeff Ritterman, was recently interviewed by the Huffington Post after a Grand Rounds presentation he delivered at Children’s Hospital of Oakland in July on the health impacts of our industrialized food system. The article focuses on the problems associated with the overuse of antibiotics in meat production. This Grand Rounds was one presentation of the three-part series called Food Matters, a clinical education and advocacy program developed by SF PSR and Health Care Without Harm. For more information about this series, please contact Lucia Sayre at SF PSR, 510 559 8777.

Article link here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/16/factory-farms-antibiotic-resistance-doctors_n_928140.html?1313512566

Livermore Actions Commemorating Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Fukushima

On August 6^th, close to 100 people attended “From Hiroshima to Fukushima to Livermore: Confronting the Two-Headed Dragon of Nuclear Weapons and Nuclear Power” at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory. At the event, co-sponsored by SF Bay Area PSR, Dr. Robert Gould spoke on the public health and environmental health impacts of nuclear weapons and nuclear power, and how money for these programs deplete resources for urgent needs. The event included music, speakers, and activities. Dr. Gould incorporated remarks by Dr. Masao Tomonaga, President of Japanese Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War on the connection between nuclear weapons and nuclear power. Dr. Tmonaga said, “We human beings, by ourselves, invented the theory and technology to create nuclear weapons and nuclear plants. For 66 years the nuclear age has continued. Now, however, we see the beginning of its slow demise, because nuclear bombs and nuclear power plants have failed to bring safety and peace to global human society. We physicians should help them cease as early as possible.” Dr. Gould further explained that last month, Hidankyo, a group representing the 10,000 still-living survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, appealed for the first time for Japan to eliminate civilian nuclear power.  The group, which has been a vocal advocate of abolishing nuclear weapons since its founding in 1956, had not voiced concern about nuclear power until now (read NYT article on opposition). Dr. Gould concluded with a call for a primary prevention approach that eliminates the massive dangers to our collective health, illustrated by both nuclear weapons and by climate change, from continued reliance on fossil fuels and dangerous “solutions” posed by nuclear power. “We need to end the massive subsidies to the nuclear power industry and instead invest in climate-friendly sustainable technologies, creating new green jobs in the process.” Dr. Gould said a major highlight of the event was when the attendees walked over to the Livermore Lab from the park where the event was held: they were able to communicate directly with a Japanese nuclear bomb survivor through a Skype connection projecting his image on a sheet hung on the fence on the property line of the weapons lab, and allowed our Japanese colleagues to view the audience holding candles in memorial for the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.