FALL 2017 | VOL. 39, NO. 2 PSR REPORTS THE NUCLEAR BAN BECOMES A REALITY | HEALTH EQUITY AND HURRICANE RELIEF | ICAN WINS NOBEL PRIZE From the Executive Director elcome to the new PSR Reports! We hope you are excited about our new W look. We’ve tried to preserve what people loved about the old version while bringing in some bright new touches: more photos, tighter stories, and a more modern design. Let us know what you think! Our redesign is part of a larger endeavor to update all of PSR’s publications and communications materials with a more contemporary look. This effort will culminate with a totally revamped website, which we expect to launch in the early part of 2018. The fall issue has been exciting to put together in more ways than one. The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) and ICAN’s Nobel Peace Prize have reinvigorated our entire organization. I hope these wins demonstrate to you that despite many challenges, our determination to turn back the gravest threats to our planet’s health and survival — climate change and nuclear weapons — is making a difference. Our work has felt more vital than ever this past year. Thank you for your support! ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH PROGRAM DIRECTOR Barbara Gottlieb SECURITY PROGRAM DIRECTOR Martin Fleck EDITING AND DESIGN Jeff Carter, JD Andi Moller Executive Director 2 | PHYSICIANS FOR SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY WWW.PSR.ORG Setsuko Thurlow, survivor of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima, speaks at the negotiations for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons at the United Nations in New York. Photo: Thea Mjelstad, ICAN WE are PSR Inside This Issue PRESIDENT TOXICS PROGRAM MANAGER 4 | FROM THE PRESIDENT Kathy Attar John Rachow, MD 5 | PUBLIC HEALTH SNAPSHOT EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR MEMBRSHIP MANAGER 6 | THE NUCLEAR BAN BECOMES A REALITY Jeff Carter, JD Amy Ciciora 8 | THE NUCLEAR BAN: MORE THAN PAPER DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER W. Taylor Johnson, MFA, DLS Elana Simon 9 | ICAN AWARDED NOBEL PEACE PRIZE (Executive Editor, PSR Reports) (Senior Editor, PSR Reports) 10 | A LIVABLE CLIMATE FOR ALL ENVIRONMENT & HEALTH WEB MANAGER 12 | PEDIATRIC TOOLKIT PROGRAM DIRECTOR Julia Morgan Barbara Gottlieb 13 | SPEAKING OUT FOR HEALTH 14 | THE FUTURE OF PSR SECURITY PROGRAM DIRECTOR DATABASE MANAGER Martin Fleck Renee Nida 16 | PSR FROM COAST TO COAST SENIOR MANAGER STUDENT PSR 18 | ACTIVIST SPOTLIGHT OF PHILANTHROPY PROGRAM COORDINATOR (Transition in progress) Michelle Gin PSR Reports (ISSN-0894-6264) is the newsletter of Physicians for Social Responsibility, a nonprofit organization. Guided by the values and expertise of medicine and public health, Physicians for Social Responsibility works to protect human life from the gravest threats to health and survival. To receive PSR Reports regularly, we invite you to join PSR and support our work. Write to PSR, 1111 14th Street, NW, Suite 700, Washington, DC 20005, or visit our website at www.psr.org. © COPYRIGHT 2017 PHYSICIANS FOR SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY Printed on recycled paper with vegetable-based inks. FALL 2017 | VOL.39, NO. 2 PSR REPORTS | 3 From the President ow time flies! PSR’s transition to our new executive director, Jeff Carter, is continuing nations voted to adopt the U.N. Hapace. One cannot doubt that 2017 has been Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear an interesting, if not hair-raising, year. Just as the U.S. Weapons on July 7, 2017. announced plans to withdraw from the U.N. Paris climate accord, the environment is going nuts as evidenced by Harvey-Irma-Maria trumping the Katrina- 122 Rita experience of 2005. And now we have leaders of nuclear-armed countries exchanging unhinged destabilizing schoolyard taunts from the dais of the U.N. General Assembly. But there is ample reason for optimism… million people in the U.S. live In July, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear within one mile of an active oil Weapons (ICAN) achieved the U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. This landmark or methane well. treaty categorically bans the last class of weapons of mass destruction and paves the road to abolition. It has been an engaging year with our executive transition and the breakthrough on nuclear disarmament. I welcome our incoming board president for 2018, Pouné Saberi, MD, MPH, and the work ahead facing the challenges of global warming 1burn be7ds in the country coul dn't cover a fraction of victims and climate change. from a nuclear attack in one city. Most of all, I am deeply grateful to all of PSR’s loyal members and supporters who make our work possible 1,907 through sustained, generous financial support. John Rachow, MD, PhD 160,000 President, PSR Board of Directors premature deaths are prevented each year from the Clean Air Act. million dollars per hour were diverted from human needs to U.S. nuclear weapons 6.57 spending in 2016. 4 | PHYSICIANS FOR SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY WWW.PSR.ORG www.psr.org PSR REPORTS 5 nations voted to adopt the U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear 122 Weapons on July 7, 2017. million people in the U.S. live within one mile of an active oil or methane well. 1burn be7ds in the country coul dn't cover a fraction of victims 1,907 from a nuclear attack in one city. 160,000 premature deaths are prevented each year from the Clean Air Act. million dollars per hour were diverted from human needs to U.S. nuclear weapons 6.57 spending in 2016. wwFALLw.ps 2017r.org | VOL.39, NO. 2 PSR REPORTS PSR REPORTS | 5 5 Pathway to progress he fight for progress is never easy. This THE NUCLEAR BAN year, the nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula T has at times seemed on the verge of spinning out BECOMES A REALITY of control, putting millions of lives at risk. Against this alarming backdrop, health advocates’ work to abolish By Martin Fleck nuclear weapons is more urgent than ever. On July 7, our international movement to draw the world’s attention to the humanitarian impacts of nuclear weapons culminated in a victorious vote to categorically ban the most lethal class of weapons of mass destruction. 122 nations voted to adopt the U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). 6 | PHYSICIANS FOR SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY WWW.PSR.ORG A future free from nuclear weapons is starting to archaic line of thinking is evident in the rhetoric look possible. “This is a strong affirmation of PSR’s surrounding the North Korean crisis, where core message that nuclear weapons pose an President Trump and North Korean leader Kim existential threat to humanity and must be Jong-un’s threats of mass destruction are disguised completely eliminated,” said PSR’s Ira Helfand, as tactics to pursue their nation’s security. MD, a member of the International Campaign to By contrast, a growing number of nations are lining Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) International up for signature and adopting the health and Steering Committee. President of the U.N. treaty humanitarian principles embedded in the TPNW. To negotiating conference Elayne Whyte-Gómez garner support for the treaty, the World Medical announced, “We are saying to our children that, Association, International Council of Nurses, World yes, it is possible to inherit a world free from Federation of Public Health Associations, and nuclear weapons.” Hiroshima atomic bomb International Physicians for the Prevention of survivor Setsuko Thurlow addressed the U.N. Nuclear War jointly called the treaty “a significant conference, declaring, “This is the beginning of the forward step.” These are the seeds of progress. end of nuclear weapons.” We don’t expect the U.S. or the other nuclear-armed The nuclear-armed countries did not get the countries to be signing the treaty any time soon. But memo. All nine boycotted the negotiations. the significance of the treaty lies beyond whether or Nuclear weapons remain central to their security when the U.S. and these other countries sign the policy. In fact, the United States’ $1.2 trillion plan to treaty. The power of this treaty is that it sets in replace and extensively upgrade its nuclear motion new global norms that reject and stigmatize arsenal risks spurring a new nuclear arms race. nuclear weapons. This is the “long game” that PSR Until the first nuclear-armed country signs and and our international partners are playing to win. ratifies the TPNW, the new treaty compels no This will take time—and some days it seems we do nation to dismantle existing nuclear weapons. So not have enough time. But there is no known what difference will it make? shortcut, and the alternative is unthinkable. The TPNW inaugurates a new context for nuclear We each have a role to play in bringing this new weapons policy. The old nuclear paradigm failed to thinking into the mainstream. As Americans, we live compel nuclear-armed countries to pursue in a nation whose policies have immense impact— disarmament because it tolerated nuclear and where citizens can have tremendous influence. weapons as valuable tools of “defense.” This Our work is just beginning. Important progress is rarely easy… There was a lot of resistance when slavery was abolished. There was plenty of opposition when women fought for the right to vote. The fights for civil rights, to end apartheid, these weren’t met with unanimous support by all. Progress doesn’t just happen when everyone is ready, it must be fought for, and someone has to be brave and lead. Beatrice Fihn Executive Director International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) FALL 2017 | VOL.39, NO. 2 PSR REPORTS | 7 The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons is a milestone international agreement that creates pathways toward the total elimination of nuclear weapons.