Prescripti on for Survival

Winter 1995 Volume 16 No. 1 Newsletterof Physiciansfor SocialResponsibility-Los Angeles HoNoRtNGDR.m Born in an internment camP in Gila, Arizona, jimmy Hara is one of the brightest and most comPassionate men practicing medicine in Los Angeles today. Dr. Hara is being honored with the Helen Caldicott Award-along "ER"-by with the cast and creators of the television series Physi- cians for Social Responsibility at a gala banquet, February L7, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. A tireless volunteer, for over 20 years, Dr. Hara has donated endless hours to the Venice Family Clinic, L.A. Free Clinic, and the UClA-Salvation Army Clinic. Dr. Hara serves as Residency Program Director of the Kaiser Los Angeles Medical Center, Department of Family Practice, and is also Regional Director of House Staff Training for Kaiser Permanente Southern California, responsible for training 300 resident physicians. Dr. Hara has been an active member of Physicians for Social Responsibility since 1980. He has served as Membership Chairman, Vice-President, President and currently is Co- Presidentof the Los Angeles chapter. For so many years, Dr. jimmy Hara has selflessly labored for peace and served our colrununity. Such love and dedica- tion deserves recognition. You are invited to ioin u.s in thanking this great man. "ER," The vastly popular television series, will also receive the Flelen Caldicott Award, named after PSR'svisionary co- founder. Dr. Caldicott will be on hand to make the award presentation. Co-stars Anthony Edwards and Julianna Margulies will represent the cast. Executive Producer John Wells and Lance Gentile, M.D., the series Story Editor, will also accept the award. As noted in the Los AngelesTirnes, "'ER' has humanely and dramatically depicted physi- cians as they encounter the current epidemic of gun violence, and has educated the public to the heroic challenges physicians face in trauma centers and emergency rooms."

You too can participate in this special evening. Please call: (310) 726-95ER. 2/Prescripti on for Survival

Of Honors and Bullets The Art of Survival ln Our Sighfs; Arfisfs Look at Guns, is a Ten years ago when I was working on L.A.'s Skid fascinatingexhibition opening March 9th at UC Riverside'sCalifornia Museum of Row, chopping vegetables and organrzing meals for the Photography.lt's an image-bustingshow homeless/ I rnet the actor Anthony Edwards, now starof of 20 photo and video artists. "ER". the hit series Anthony had volunteered at our soup kitchen to Artist Stephanie Cress survived gunshot 1993robbery, her get to know the real Los Angeles, move beyond Tinseltown's flash woundsfrom a husbanddid not; her work exploresher and glitter-he'd just appeared loss. CynthiaRettig Pancher shares diary- "Top in Gun." Nice guy, I like photos of her family'scasual use of From thought, but with his thinning Jo^d/l^^ firearms.Joseph Rodriguez's offers visions the into the lives of East L.A. gangbangers. hair can he make it in Director P"4* Definitelyworth the trip down Hwy.60, the Hollywood? exhibitruns through June 2. Call909-787- 4787. Ten movies and three TV series later, the answer is that Anthony Edwards is today one of Hollywood's premiere actors. His "ER" character, Dr. Mark Greene, is something of a miracle: sensi- tive, intelligent, hard-working, pained, divided, loving. His ability to attach kindness to dedicaiion is really quite an achievement for American television. His performances give physicians a rare gift: human dimensionality. lruOun Srcurs: ARTrsrs I'm personally very gratified that Anthony Edwards, co-star LocK nr Gurus MARCH9-JUNE2, I996 Margulies, Executive Producer Wells and ER's real- CALIFoRNIA MUSEUM oF Julianna John PHOTOGRAPHY doctor-on-the-set Lance Centile I\"{.D.,will participate in our awards UC RrvERSroe 9O9 787-4787 banquet. Add Drs. Caldicott and l{ara the evening will be You may already know Jim Lera- exceptional. Miss at your own peril. ger's profoundly straightforward photo- graphs of the irradiatedamong us. Rus- Question: what public health problem has killed 100,000more sian schoolkids saddledwith gas masks, people than AIDS over the past ten years? Answer: handguns. Tb a Mona Lisa-likeChernobyl baby born without hands, ShoshoneIndians facing address this grave epidemic, PSR has begun teaching physicians to their decimatedland at the NevadaTest counsel patients on firearm safety. Last January 11, in conjunction Site. with Pasadena's Coalition for a Nonviolent City, Dr. Robert Wesley "Talesfrom the NuclearAge," Jim and Pasadena City College Chancellor, jack Scott, lectured a class- Lerager'swonderful exhibit, is now show- room of family practice physicians at the lovely new Kaiser Perman- ing through March 1 at LagunaBeach's BC Space. A receptionfor Jim will take ente facility in Baldwin Hills. On January 31, Dr. Mark Rosenthal place,Thursday, Feb. 22,6-9 PM. PSRis lectured at Kaiser Permanente Panorama City. A powerful PSR a sponsor.Info: (714) 497-1880. slideshow, medical literature fact sheets and abstracts accompany the presentation. The response, thus far, has been tremendous. If your hospital or group is interested in this CME-approved series, or PSRWlsH Ltsr o energeticvolunteers would like to become a presenter, please call the office: 310-458- o plantsfor the office 2694. . laptop/notebookcomputer CALL31 0 45 8-2694 3/Prescription for Survival WARDVnLLEY; SnnALL M tRAcLES?

just a few months ago the establishment of a radio- established without restrictions. Ergo, the Republican active dump in our state seemed a certainty. Despite pursued the amendment to the budget bill. years of constant effort by PSR and other groups- OUR FIRST MIRACLE. On another front, through speaking out in the state legislature, the state and the efforts of the great environmental group, Commit- federal courts, various state departments and the tee to Bridge the Gap, new scientific evidence was federal legislature-it seemed that all was lost when revealed casting further doubt on the safety of the Ward Valley was placed on the Republican Budget proposed dump. Reconciliation Bill now before the President. Though It started last year during last year's National the waste dump has nothing to do with the budget, Academy hearings, when a United States Geological the action placing it on the budget bill is an old legis- Survey (USGS) scientist used data from a closed radio- lative maneuver worked by both sides of the aisle. active waste dump in Beatty, Nevada to bolster the Flouse Republicans believed Ward Valley would be contention that radiation would not migrate through too unimportant to impede progress on the budget. the dry soil at Ward Valley, as the geology of the They were wrong. As you know, the budget has Beatty site and that of Ward Valley were said to be so languished for three months, and through our coali- similar. This same USGS geologist knew, at the time tion's effort Ward Valley was cited by the Clinton of the hearings, of massive leakage at the Beatty facil- Administration as one of the 82 reasons for a veto of ity, but for unknown reasons kept this knowledge to the initial budget. At press time, we do not know himself. whether Ward Valley will be included on the final Although this revelation clearly makes the National version. Academy report invalid, and has troubled many of the You may recall last year's National Academy of dump's supporters, there is little indication that this Science panel on Ward Valley. In a decision, which news will impede the transfer. was atypically indecisive and not unanimous, the A SECOND MIRACLE. A new development com- committee recommended building the dump but with ing from a totally unexpected source has now dramati- two important qualifying advisements: that the cally emerged. The Board of Supervisors of San Ber- amount of plutonium to be discarded be fixed and nardino County, whose jurisdiction includes Ward that monitoring wells be dug to see if there will be Valley, unanimously passed an ordinance placing any escape of the radioactive materials into the envi- specific environmental standards on radioactive ronment. waste facilities, including not being within ten miles of a Interior Secretary Babbitt, following the NAS rec- water source and having advanced technology similar ommendations, would willingly transfer the land at to that practiced in European countries. Containment Ward Valley when Covernor Pete Wilson accepted the has to have lead-lined steel reinforced concrete cham- National Academy's terms. Instead, Governor Wilson bers. PSR testified (continued on page 4) took a strong stand, insisting that the dump be

Savethe Date!! Tne 1996 HeLENGnIoIcoTT AWARDS HonoringDr. Jimmy H ara and ER's Anthony Edwards . Julianna Margulies. JohnWells . LanceGentile, M.D. Saturday o February 17 o 6:00 PM er BeverlyHilton Hotel o BeverlyHills Call(310) 726-95ER for reservationsand information 4/Prescripti on for Survival

TFIE FOURTFI FIORSEMAN: NUCLEAWEAPONS AND POWER It was another dismal year for the fourth horse-man of the environment, the nuclear indus- try. During 1995, bad news rolled in, making it unmistakably clear that this technology is more dangerous, less controllable, and more damaging to democracy than even its severest critics had "cold imagined. The end of the war" has, if any- thing, heightened the danger that nuclear bombs will one day obliterate another city-by accident, by terrorism, or by political blunder. "nuclear The official club" (those who admit they have the bomb) now includes the U.S., Britain, France, China, Russia, and India. In addi- tion, Israel is widely believed to have roughly hundred three nuclear bombs. The former prime "Train minister of Pakistan announced in 1994 that Paki- tried to secede. loads of special radioac- stan has the bomb. North Korea is said to have tive freight often cross regions where armed A-bombs. Others known to be aggressively ac- interethnic conflicts are under way," says the quiring A-bomb technology include Iraq, Libya, Russian newspaper KOMSOMOLSKAYA PRA and Iran. VDA, quoted in the New York Times. By far the easiest way to acquire material for Now a different kind of political chaos has a nuclear weapon is to steal it. The amounts emerged in former Soviet lands. According to needed are not large: one kilogram of plutonium studies by German investigators, about 5000 (2.2 different criminal gangs, overseen by about 150 pounds) will do it, or 3 kilograms (6.6 "godfathers," are now opcrating in the former pounds) of enriched uranium can make a bomb "Rus- equivalent to 1000 tons of TNT. The amount of Soviet Union; the total membership of this plutonium needed to make a bomb is somewhere sian Mafia" is estimated at 100,000 people. The between the size of a hockey puck and a soda K.G.B. and specialized military units, which can. worked to control the gangs, have now been "evidence substantially weakened, and exists Using low estimates, the world total in 1990 that many highly-trained veterans of such agen- was 322,117 kilograms of plutoniurn. This repre- cies have themselves ioined Mafia bands." sents the capacity to make 322,II7 small atomic just bombs. And this is just the plutonium inventory. Under such conditions, keeping track of The world's inventory of enriched uranium, if it nuclear inventories is impossible. In mid-1994 were known, would greatly increase our the NEW YORK TIMES began a front-page story estimate "Russia of the capacity for trouble. For example, the this way: has no way of knowing for Soviets had at least 120,000 kg of bomb-grade sure if any of its vast supply of bomb ingredi- enriched uranium at the end of the cold war. ents is missing, many of its own nuclear officials and scientists admit." The story featured a front The former Soviet Union provides an example -page photograph of a Russian nuclear scientist of the insecurity that nuclear technology brings "It's "cold saying, possible to bry anything in our with it. At the end of the \^/ar" the Soviets country, including weapons and samples." had an estimate d 32,500 individual nuclear weap- ons, held at 950 separate locations. When political Terrorists-and future nuclear club members -will chaos overtook the land, Soviet nuclear weaponry pay millions of dollars for a few pounds of fell under the control of four governments: Russia, nuclear material. In early 1995, the NEW YORK Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus. Then civil war TIMES reported that there had been 124 casesof broke out in the Ukraine when Crimea declared actual or attempted nuclear (continuedon paget'ioe) its independence, and in Russia when Chechnya S/Prescriptionfor Survival

Nuclear Horseman (continued from page four) smuggling from former communist countries during WardValley (continued from page three) 1994, compared to 56 cases in 1993 and 53 in 1992. "a at thesehearings. These simple and necessaryhealth criteria Citing as its source Western European intelligence "the have not been followed by U.S. Ecology, nor the state of report," the TIMES said smugglers themselves California,which proposessimply buryingthe waste in an have become steadily more sophisticated. " open pit, the most primitivemanner. Terorists want even small amounts of nuclear materi- The spokespersonfor the Departmentof Health Services als because making an A-bomb is not the only way to called the ordinanceillegal, claiming that the Countydoes terrorize the world with uranium or plutonium. just not havejurisdiction. Certainly, the issuewill be decidedin blowing a chunk of plutonium to smithereens with the courts.Even if the land is transferred,the ordinancemay dynamite in some city center would be sufficient to haveto be complied with, and the wishesof the peopleof contaminate a large area, essentially pennanently. SanBernardino County may hold sway.This will be goodday Such an attack would strike dread into the hearts of for ordinarypeople taking control of their own destinyand local people, who would never know whether they for maintainingtheir democraticrights. had inhaled a lethal dose of plutonium. The real As always PSR will let you know about any new weapon in this scenario would be fear, and a penna- development . or miracle. nent sense of insecurity throughout the city. Even without terorism, nuclear safety is impossible to RichardC. Saxon,M.D. assure. In the U.S.-thought to be a model of stability and technical prowess-nuclear stockpiles are subject to Plutonium is among the most toxic materials every human foibles. discovered. W:rcn a small piece of it gets into a human . In December 1992, the U.S. A*y mistakenly lung, it is supremely efficient at causing cancer. Some- shipped a kilogram of plutonium by Federal where between 28 and 80 micrograms is thought to "with Express, which transported it on an airplane. cause cancer in a human certainty." If we use 80 micrograms as a lethal dose, we can calculate that one . In late 1994 at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in kilogram (2.2 pounds) of plutonium contains IZ.s Tennessee, U.S. officials discovered that 2 kilo- million deadly cancer doses. grams of bomb-grade uranium--enough to make a Worse, recent scientific studies small nuclear bomb-had leaked from a defunct reveal that plutonium causes genetic damage to humans, Oak Ridge reactor. The uranium had escaped by but it's a new kind "through of damage which may not become turning into a gas an unexpected chemi- evident for several generations. In other words, infinitesimal amounts cal reaction" and was found accumulating in a of plutonium breathed today may not harm drain pipe. Officials expressed concem that if water you, but may harm your grandchildren or great-grandchildren. entered the pipe, a nuclear chain reaction could The mechanism for the delayed genetic shower radioactive material over a wide area. effect is not under- stood, but is the subject of numerous scientific papers . On Dec. 6, 1994, the Department of Energy confirming its existence. Thus plutonium's toxicity is reported that U.S. plutonium inventories, held at worse than scientists thought even five years ago. 35 locations, in containers that were subject to Yes, this genie of death is out of the bottle. And every leaks and ruptures. More than 64,000 plutonium time we look, this genie is bigger and more full of containers included plastic bags, glass bottles, and "some diabolical surprises. It is time we put a cork in it. metal canisters, of which were unlabeled and unmarked. Many of the containers were rup- Peter Montague tured or broken; consequently plutonium was reported to have contaminated floors, walls, pip- ing, and doors at many facilities. In all, the report characterized the nationwide network of weapons TI{ANI( YOf] complexes as a dilapidated and hazardous sys- to otrr ne\ / " tem. In sum, even the wealthiest, most techni- ANGELMEIVrBERS cally advanced nation in the world evidently does Los Angeles not have what it takes to manage these materials Physicians for Social Responsibility safely. pepAzey

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