2009 ~ Highlights

Nuclear Weapons, Nuclear Waste

 
2009 was an amazing year for WPSR’s nuclear work! The Hanford Task Force continues to work to provide a fair and scientific medical perspective on the cleanup of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation through participating in the Hanford Advisory Board. This effort is led by Karen Bowman, MN, RN, COHN-S, and Charlie Weems, MD, alongside Howard Putter, MD, who has assumed the lead following the passing of Jim Trombold, MD.

In June, WPSR hosted Bob Alvarez, Senior Scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies, who discussed, Energy and Weapons in 2009: How Do We Assure a Sustainable, Nuclear-Free Future? Mr. Alvarez’s talk, spoke of the key nuclear issues facing the Obama administration and the need for swift and significant action to begin to remedy past years’ poor decisions as well as current global challenges.

WPSR staff and members have also worked alongside board member Dr. David Hall in the rebuilding of the community center at Ground Zero. The center was dedicated on August 8th in conjunction with Ground Zero’s weekend of commemorating the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. WPSR commends Dave and all of the devoted Ground Zero volunteers for their incredible commitment to this project and for their extraordinary dedication to a world free from nuclear weapons.

WPSR Leads the Way With New Research on Body Burden and Toxic Chemicals
 
Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) in partnership with the American Nurses Association and Health Care Without Harm has released the Hazardous Chemicals In Health Care report, detailing the first investigation ever of chemicals found in the bodies of healthcare professionals. This study was designed and conducted by Washington PSR’s very own vice-president Rich Grady, MD and PSR staff member Kristen Welker-Hood, RN. 10 states participated in the study, with each state inviting one physician and one nurse to participate. WPSR invited Carmen McDermott, MD, a local internist, and Donna Yancey, RN, a nurse from Seattle Children’s Hospital to participate.

The inquiry found that all 20 participants had toxic chemicals associated with healthcare in their bodies. Each participant had at least 24 individual chemicals present, 4 of which are on the recently released Environmental Protection Agency list of priority chemicals for regulation. These chemicals are all associated with chronic illness and physical disorders. This evidence provides quantitative data that demonstrates what we already know: that our exposure every day to a wide array of chemicals is dangerous. WPSR is proud to have been such an integral part of this groundbreaking study.

Healing Wounds Through Humanitarian Aid
 

In October, WPSR sponsored a delegation to the Gaza Strip, Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Assisted by Israeli authorities, the 12 delegates spent 5 days in Gaza. 6 of the delegates were physicians who offered medical consultation and provided care with their professional colleagues. One delegate, a nurse with experience in bereavement, provided classes in grief and bereavement for social workers, psychologists and nurses. The 5 humanitarian delegates toured sites in Gaza and visited human rights professionals, child development centers, and family members. Stories of the ongoing siege and the results of last winter’s war on Gaza were present in each encounter. The delegation was hosted by the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme and Al Awda Hospital.Dr. Eyad El Sarraj, a friend of WPSR since 1993 when the first WPSR delegation visited Gaza, has invited more physicians to serve with colleagues in Gaza and delegates hope WPSR will sponsor another delegation to the region in 2010.

WPSR Joins Thousands to Rally for a Healthy Climate

On May 21, 2,000 people gathered outside an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) hearing in Seattle, and urged the Obama administration to take action to reduce global warming pollution. The public hearing was on EPA’s recent proposed finding that global warming pollution is a threat to public health and welfare.

WPSR joined coalition partners to lead the outpouring of public support for fast, scientifically-based, and substantial actions on climate change. Testifying for WPSR were: Evan Kanter, MD, Dave Hall, MD, and Catherine Karr, MD. Dr. Kanter, PSR’s National President said, “I represent thousands of health professionals and we speak with urgency and conviction in support of this finding. The range of health effects includes more intense heat waves, increased air pollution resulting in asthma and other respiratory diseases, mosquito and water-borne infectious diseases, flooding and severe storms.”

 If you have not yet signed our health professionals’ call for strong climate legislation please do so now: www.psr.org/climateletters

Healthy Food in Healthcare

 WPSR continues making strides in its implementation of healthy and sustainable food practices in healthcare facilities across Washington state. This year, WPSR co-hosted a Healthy Food in Healthcare Roundtable, which aimed to cultivate new relationships between hospitals and farmers. WPSR also took the lead in developing a national network of registered dieticians for the Balanced Menu Project, a systemic approach to reduce the amount of meat protein in hospital food and a strategic pathway to serving the healthiest, most sustainably produced meat available. Find out more about our Green Guide for Healthcare Food Credits, how to get your healthcare facility to sign the Healthy Food in Healthcare Pledge, and more at www.wpsr.org or wpsr@wpsr.org.

Annual Dinner 2009

WPSR’s Board of Directors and staff wish to extend sincere thanks to all who attended our recent 30th Anniversary Dinner. Treasured friendships were renewed, we honored the legacies of Jim Trombold and Bill Witherup, and broadened the depth of our understanding of the true costs of war in listening to independent journalist, Dahr Jamail. With the recent news of Obama’s decision to deploy 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, voicing our health concerns over continued war is more crucial than ever. You can do so through WPSR by making a donation today, so that we can continue asserting the medical voice of Washington state to advocate for a healthy, peaceful, and sustainable world.

On the Horizon ~ 2010

Tell Legislators it’s Time to Eliminate BPA!
 
Due to the efforts of the chemical industry, the Safe Baby Bottle Act of 2009, which would have phased out the hormone disrupting chemical Bisphenol A (BPA) from food and beverage containers for infants, stalled in the Senate last year after passing through the House. BPA is linked to developmental disorders in children and heart disease and diabetes in adults. When it leaches out of products, it contaminates our bodies and the environment. Studies have detected BPA in pregnant women, children, other adults, and the environment. As part of a major campaign with our partners, WPSR sent a letter signed by almost 300 health professionals asking Governor Gregoire and WA Legislators to support the bill.

 This session, WPSR, along with the rest of the Toxic-Free Legacy Coalition, will continue these efforts. Since last legislative session, 3 other states in the US have passed legislation banning BPA from consumer products including infant formula cans, baby bottles, and sports bottles. Safer alternatives are available to manufacturers, and it’s time for health to come first in our state as well. There are several ways you can help make sure Washington’s children’s are safe from unnecessary contaminants.

• Join us January 26 for Lobby Day
• Write a personal letter to your representatives and senator asking them to support the Safe Baby Bottle Act (HB1180/SB5282), and asking them to respond to your letter letting you know their position on the issue.
• Sign our health professionals’ sign on letter here. 

We need your help to pass this bill!

Advocating for Hanford Cleanup: Online, and On the Wall

In June, WPSR launched the Washington Nuclear Museum and Education Center (WANMEC). WANMEC is the first wiki-based, participatory, online museum of its kind. It presents historical and scientific information, first-hand accounts, art and poetry on nuclear issues and especially Hanford. This project is expanding to include new features: an interactive timeline that will serve as a guide to the history of Hanford, and a mapping project that will track what materials came into the site and what left or was left behind. For example, uranium was mined and brought in to create plutonium. Where did the uranium come from and where did the plutonium go? We will also be expanding This is My Hanford, a written and oral history project, for which we are seeking personal stories from people that have been affected in any way by Hanford. Please contact us with your story. WANMEC (www.wanmec.org) is created in partnership with the Institute of Neurotoxicology & Neuroligal Disorders (INND), with web support provided by Toxipedia (www.toxipidia.org).

WPSR has also partnered with INND to launch a unique interdisciplinary exhibit, Particles on the Wall (POTW), that explores major themes of today’s nuclear age through scientific displays, poetry, and visual art. POTW will be exhibited from January 3 –30 at Café Allegro, 4214 University Way NE (in the alley behind the Post Office in Seattle’s University District). Join us at the opening reception on Friday, January 8 at 7 PM at Café Allegro. Following this exhibition, the display will travel to other locations throughout Washington. WPSR’s work on Hanford cleanup is funded through a grant from Washington State Department of Ecology. While these materials were reviewed for grant consistency, this does not necessarily constitute endorsement by the Department.

Code Black Declared in Washington: Over 20% of State’s Electricity Coming from Coal

The TansAlta coal plant in Centralia, WA is the largest single source of air pollution and global warming emissions in WA. Coal contributes to 4 of the top 5 causes of mortality in the US, and is responsible for increasing the incidence of major diseases already affecting large portions of the US population.

WPSR calls on the medical and public health community to help stem the levels of pollution emitted from the TransAlta coal plant. Governor Gregoire is currently negotiating with the TransAlta Corporation over the future of its coal use in WA. Call Governor Gregoire today, and ask her to use this opportunity to call for an end to harmful pollution and a responsible transition to clean energy. If you’re interested in helping further to stop the TransAlta coal plant from polluting Washington, please contact us.

Negotiating a Nuclear-Free Future

In the coming months, President Obama will have several opportunities to demonstrate his commitment to eliminating nuclear weapons .The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) is expiring this month with the US and Russia still collectively possessing nearly 20,000 nuclear weapons. Likewise, we continue to wait to see the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), which bans all nuclear explosions in all environments, ratified. Heading into the negotiations concerning the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (May 2010), the US’ ratifying of the CTBT would do much to restore our leadership status in the world and would encourage broader international support of a strong NPT. This would also pressure holdout states to sign and ratify the treaty, thus indicating a sincere global commitment to suppress a new and potentially even more deadly nuclear weapons race. There will be opportunities to make your voice heard. Please check the WPSR website and your email regularly and stay engaged on nuclear weapons issues. Time is of the essence.

Clean, Green Initiative

 As part of a national effort to engage health care professionals in the fight against climate change, WPSR is reaching out to help hospitals reduce their carbon footprint. Among other successes this fall WPSR presented the Puget Sound VA Medical Center with ways to enhance sustainability, convincing them to become the first VA Medical Center in the northwest to sign up for the EPA’s Federal Green Challenge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 5% in 2010.

 In December WPSR will travel to Spokane to Shriners Hospital for Children and Sacred Heart Children’s Hospital. We will present ways to “green” their facilities through emissions reductions, environmentally preferable purchasing, and eliminating chemicals of concern. All of this is part of WPSR’s ongoing effort to make Washington’s hospitals and healthcare facilities increasingly healthy and sustainable.

WPSR Would like to thank our Circle of Peace Donors of 2009

The Circle of Peace honors those that have given $1,000 or more this year to WPSR.

Please consider joining the Circle of Peace.

Diane & Steve Adam, MD

Joann & Bruce Amundson, MD

Jack Buchans & Margaret Kitchell, MD

Patricia Dawson, MD

Nancy Dickeman

Steven Gilbert, PhD

Richard Grady, MD & Laura Hart, MD

William Grady, MD

Robert Gramenz, DO

Rev. Anne & David Hall, MD

Gerri & Robert Haynes, MD

Paul Herstein, MD

J. David Heywood, MD

Evan Kanter, MD

Robert Olson, MD

Eileen &

Howard Putter, MD

Mary Ann Trombold

Charles Weems, MD

View, download or print out a pdf version of 2009-2010 highlights here.

Help us continue our work in 2010 by donating today!