Physicians for Social Responsibility
Encyclopedia
Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) is the largest physician-led organization in the USA working to protect the public from the what they consider threats of nuclear proliferation
, climate change, and environmental toxin
s. Continuing its long history of physician-led activism, PSR produces and disseminates its own publications, provides specialized training, offers written and oral testimony to congress, conducts media interviews, and delivers professional and public education. PSR’s 50,000 members and e-activists, 30 state and local chapters, 39 student chapters, and 14 national staff form a nationwide network that target what they consider threats to global survival, specifically nuclear warfare
, nuclear proliferation, global warming
, and toxic
degradation of the environment.
were among the founding group of physicians. PSR's initial reports on the real human, physical, social and environmental consequences of a nuclear war commanded immediate national attention and was followed by a sustained and highly effective campaign over the ensuing decades to educate the public about the irrevocable consequences of the use of nuclear weapons and the unwinability of a nuclear war. PSR originally opposed atmospheric nuclear testing
by documenting the presence of testing byproduct strontium-90
in children's teeth.
, MD was asked by Arnold Relman, the then editor to write an article for the NEJM on the medical dangers of nuclear power. She was subsequently visited by a young intern from Cambridge City Hospital at Children's Hospital Medical Center where she worked in the cystic fibrosis unit, to ask for some relevant papers on nuclear power. After some discussion with him, Caldicott said - you know this is a medical issue, let's start a medical organization. The first meeting held a week later at the Boston home of Helen and Bill Caldicott with several physicians in attendance including one who had been the past the secretary of the old PSR, Richard Feinbloom. Feinbloom suggested that instead of bothering to incorporate a new organization in the State of Massachusetts, the group take the name of the old and then defunct Physicians for Social Responsibility and use it. They did.
This newly reinvigorated organization took off soon after. One of the initial organizational actions was to place an ad in the New England Journal of Medicine outlining what they considered to be the medical implications of nuclear power. The ad was serendipitously published the day after Three Mile Island melted down without a single fatality attracting 500 new members. Over five years the new PSR recruited 23,000 physician members and organized approximately 153 chapters in the US. Dr. Caldicott served as the President of PSR from 1978 until 1984 when she resigned.
awarded to IPPNW "for spreading authoritative information and by creating an awareness of the catastrophic consequences of atomic warfare."
Since 1992, when PSR formally created its environment and health program, PSR has worked to address global warming and the toxic degradation of the environment. PSR presses for policies to curb global warming, generate what they consider to be a sustainable energy future, minimize toxic pollution of air, food and drinking water, and prevent human exposure to toxic substances. PSR's Code Black program has been a voice in the movement to reduce U.S. reliance on coal-fired power plants. Coal's Assault on Human Health, released in November 2009, is a groundbreaking report that reviews and summarizes the latest peer-reviewed medical literature on coal pollution, providing a full picture of how coal affects human health from mining to combustion to the disposal of post-combustion waste.
In 2008, concerned about the push to promote nuclear energy as the solution to environmental problems, PSR launched what they called a safe energy program aimed at stopping the construction of new nuclear power plants and to sound the alarm about what they consider to be the true costs of, and the dangers associated with, nuclear energy.
Student Physicians for Social Responsibility (SPSR), a network of 39 chapters and 650 students, mobilizes medical students to engage in the work against nuclear proliferation, environmental degradation, and social justice issues. SPSR orients every new generation of medical students to be engaged in creating positive change through medical activism.
PSR state and local chapters work on a range of issues, including the 'greening' of hospitals, what they consider sustainable agriculture, health care reform, and domestic violence. Several PSR chapters are also active in the gun control
movement, working to ban handguns in the United States.
Nuclear proliferation
Nuclear proliferation is a term now used to describe the spread of nuclear weapons, fissile material, and weapons-applicable nuclear technology and information, to nations which are not recognized as "Nuclear Weapon States" by the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons, also known as the...
, climate change, and environmental toxin
Toxin
A toxin is a poisonous substance produced within living cells or organisms; man-made substances created by artificial processes are thus excluded...
s. Continuing its long history of physician-led activism, PSR produces and disseminates its own publications, provides specialized training, offers written and oral testimony to congress, conducts media interviews, and delivers professional and public education. PSR’s 50,000 members and e-activists, 30 state and local chapters, 39 student chapters, and 14 national staff form a nationwide network that target what they consider threats to global survival, specifically nuclear warfare
Nuclear warfare
Nuclear warfare, or atomic warfare, is a military conflict or political strategy in which nuclear weaponry is detonated on an opponent. Compared to conventional warfare, nuclear warfare can be vastly more destructive in range and extent of damage...
, nuclear proliferation, global warming
Global warming
Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
, and toxic
Poison
In the context of biology, poisons are substances that can cause disturbances to organisms, usually by chemical reaction or other activity on the molecular scale, when a sufficient quantity is absorbed by an organism....
degradation of the environment.
Organizational history
PSR was founded in Boston in 1961 by a group of physicians concerned about the public health dangers associated with the testing, stockpiling and use of nuclear weapons. Drs. Bernard Lown, Victor Sidel, Sidney Alexander, Jack Geiger, and Robert GoldwynRobert Goldwyn
Robert Malcolm Goldwyn , born in Worcester, Massachusetts, was an author, activist, Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School, and Chief of Plastic Surgery at the Beth Israel Hospital from 1972 to 1996. He was the editor-in-chief of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery for 25 years.-Medical...
were among the founding group of physicians. PSR's initial reports on the real human, physical, social and environmental consequences of a nuclear war commanded immediate national attention and was followed by a sustained and highly effective campaign over the ensuing decades to educate the public about the irrevocable consequences of the use of nuclear weapons and the unwinability of a nuclear war. PSR originally opposed atmospheric nuclear testing
Nuclear testing
Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine the effectiveness, yield and explosive capability of nuclear weapons. Throughout the twentieth century, most nations that have developed nuclear weapons have tested them...
by documenting the presence of testing byproduct strontium-90
Strontium-90
Strontium-90 is a radioactive isotope of strontium, with a half-life of 28.8 years.-Radioactivity:Natural strontium is nonradioactive and nontoxic, but 90Sr is a radioactivity hazard...
in children's teeth.
Rebirth of PSR in the late 1970s
By 1973 the organization was not active and in effect ceased to exist. In 1978, Helen CaldicottHelen Caldicott
Helen Mary Caldicott is an Australian physician, author, and anti-nuclear advocate who has founded several associations dedicated to opposing the use of nuclear power, depleted uranium munitions, nuclear weapons, nuclear weapons proliferation, war and military action in general. She hosts a...
, MD was asked by Arnold Relman, the then editor to write an article for the NEJM on the medical dangers of nuclear power. She was subsequently visited by a young intern from Cambridge City Hospital at Children's Hospital Medical Center where she worked in the cystic fibrosis unit, to ask for some relevant papers on nuclear power. After some discussion with him, Caldicott said - you know this is a medical issue, let's start a medical organization. The first meeting held a week later at the Boston home of Helen and Bill Caldicott with several physicians in attendance including one who had been the past the secretary of the old PSR, Richard Feinbloom. Feinbloom suggested that instead of bothering to incorporate a new organization in the State of Massachusetts, the group take the name of the old and then defunct Physicians for Social Responsibility and use it. They did.
This newly reinvigorated organization took off soon after. One of the initial organizational actions was to place an ad in the New England Journal of Medicine outlining what they considered to be the medical implications of nuclear power. The ad was serendipitously published the day after Three Mile Island melted down without a single fatality attracting 500 new members. Over five years the new PSR recruited 23,000 physician members and organized approximately 153 chapters in the US. Dr. Caldicott served as the President of PSR from 1978 until 1984 when she resigned.
Founding of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW)
PSR's work to educate the public about the dangers of nuclear war grew into an international movement with the founding of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War in 1980. In 1980 Dr. Bernard Lown co-founded, with Dr. Evgeni Chazov of the Soviet Union, IPPNW, with PSR as its American affiliate and branches in many other nations, to continue this educational effort on a global scale. As the U.S. affiliate of this global professional network, PSR shared in the 1985 Nobel Peace PrizeNobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...
awarded to IPPNW "for spreading authoritative information and by creating an awareness of the catastrophic consequences of atomic warfare."
PSR today
Today, PSR's security program works to improve national policy formulation and decision-making about nuclear weapons and technology through the combined efforts of credible, committed health professionals and active and concerned citizen members. PSR articulates both the health threats and the security threats posed by nuclear weapons, as well as the importance of implementing new approaches to reduce U.S. reliance on nuclear weapons in national security policy. PSR works to lead the U.S. toward the ultimate elimination of nuclear weapons without regard for the fact that it is because of nuclear weapons that has not been a third world war.Since 1992, when PSR formally created its environment and health program, PSR has worked to address global warming and the toxic degradation of the environment. PSR presses for policies to curb global warming, generate what they consider to be a sustainable energy future, minimize toxic pollution of air, food and drinking water, and prevent human exposure to toxic substances. PSR's Code Black program has been a voice in the movement to reduce U.S. reliance on coal-fired power plants. Coal's Assault on Human Health, released in November 2009, is a groundbreaking report that reviews and summarizes the latest peer-reviewed medical literature on coal pollution, providing a full picture of how coal affects human health from mining to combustion to the disposal of post-combustion waste.
In 2008, concerned about the push to promote nuclear energy as the solution to environmental problems, PSR launched what they called a safe energy program aimed at stopping the construction of new nuclear power plants and to sound the alarm about what they consider to be the true costs of, and the dangers associated with, nuclear energy.
Student Physicians for Social Responsibility (SPSR), a network of 39 chapters and 650 students, mobilizes medical students to engage in the work against nuclear proliferation, environmental degradation, and social justice issues. SPSR orients every new generation of medical students to be engaged in creating positive change through medical activism.
PSR state and local chapters work on a range of issues, including the 'greening' of hospitals, what they consider sustainable agriculture, health care reform, and domestic violence. Several PSR chapters are also active in the gun control
Gun control
Gun control is any law, policy, practice, or proposal designed to restrict or limit the possession, production, importation, shipment, sale, and/or use of guns or other firearms by private citizens...
movement, working to ban handguns in the United States.