Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) joined environmental groups in announcing their intent to sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in federal court to force the release of long-awaited federal safeguards for toxic coal ash.

"The information being presented to students misleads them on very basic questions of health and safety. Fossil fuels like coal have very damaging effects on health, and schools should warn students about them, not ignore them," noted Barbara Gottlieb, Director of Environment and Health at Physicians for Social Responsibility.

Dr. Catherine Thomasson, an Oregon physician and leading advocate on health-related impacts on nuclear weapons and climate change, became executive director of Physicians for Social Responsibility on January 1, 2012.

Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) applauds the Obama Administration’s decision to send U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to the Biological Weapons Convention Review Conference underway in Geneva Switzerland.

Regulatory, scientific and health experts agree: The “3/11” Fukushima reactor disaster is still ongoing six month later … and some major lessons are in danger of going unheeded.

Physicians for Social Responsibility called for immediate action to improve safeguards at nuclear reactors vulnerable to seismic events such as the 5.8 magnitude earthquake that struck the East coast on August 23, 2011.

PSR supports many of the recommendations raised by the NRC’s Near-Term Task Force Review, but the report fails to recommend moving spent fuel from packed spent fuel pools to hardened on-site storage.

Today, Physicians for Social Responsibility released its report, The Clean Air Act: A Proven Tool for Healthy Air. The report provides a critical review of the health protections achieved through air pollution prevention.

It is the consensus of the medical and scientific community, summarized in the US National Academies’ National Research Council report Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation VII, that there is no safe level of radiation.

Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) today cited gross inadequacies in evacuation zones around nuclear reactors and underscored the ongoing health risks of nuclear energy to the public.

The release of plutonium from at least one of Japan’s Fukushima nuclear reactors carries serious risks to public health and the environment, according to PSR. Inhalation of a plutonium particle the size of a speck of dust can lead to lung cancer and death.

Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) expressed concern over recent reports that radioactivity from the ongoing Fukushima accident is present in the Japanese food supply.

IPPNW issues a strong statement calling for an immediate cease fire by all parties in Libya and internationally. Click above to read the full statement.

The unknown and changing situation in Japan regarding radiation releases is continuing to cause concern and confusion here in the United States. PSR National and our Chapters are receiving many questions regarding radiation effects and requests for medical advice.

Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) today called for a nationwide moratorium on new nuclear reactors in the United States and a suspension of operations at the nuclear reactors with a similar design as those involved in the disaster in Japan, as well as those on fault lines.

PSR welcomed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s release today of a proposed update to air quality standards that will limit the emission of lethal air toxics from power plants.

A news media briefing took place today with three of the world’s leading radiation exposure experts to discuss the consequences for human health of the nuclear reactor crisis in Japan.

Thanks to a negotiated agreement, Washington State’s only coal-fired power plant is now scheduled to slash its generating capacity in half by 2020 and close entirely by 2025.

Leading public health organizations announced today that 1,882 physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists, certified asthma educators and other health and medical professionals from all 50 states and the District of Columbia sent a letter to President Obama, the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives urging them to uphold the protections established in the Clean Air Act.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will meet in Munich on Saturday, February 5th to exchange the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) documents as the final step prior to the treaty entering into force.