News Briefing: Radiation Impacts on Human Health of Japanese Reactor Crisis - Audio available here

Listen to the audio from this news media briefing with radiation and health experts here.

A transcipt of the briefing is available here.

Three Leading International Radiation Exposure Experts to Outline Impacts, Areas for Concern

WASHINGTON, D.C.///NEWS ADVISORY///A news media briefing will take place by phone at 1 p.m. EST/1700 GMT with three of the world’s leading radiation exposure experts to discuss the consequences for human health of the nuclear reactor crisis in Japan.

The Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) news event is being held to address concerns about misleading and incomplete information that is being provided about the Japanese nuclear catastrophe.

News event speakers will be:

• Dr. Ira Helfand, past president of Physicians for Social Responsibility and a nuclear expert who has dedicated his life to educating the public and the medical establishment about nuclear energy.  He has published articles about the real and potential public health consequences associated with nuclear reactors.  He is a board-certified internist in Springfield, Massachusetts and a graduate of Harvard University and Albert Einstein Medical College.

• Dr. David Richardson, associate professor of epidemiology in the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  His research focuses on ionizing radiation.  He has engaged in studies of cancer among nuclear workers at several US Department of Energy facilities. In addition, he has worked with the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer on studies of occupational cancers and ionizing radiation; and in Japan on studies of cancer among the survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 

• Dr. Marvin Resnikoff is an international consultant on radioactive waste issues.  A nuclear physicist and a graduate of the University of Michigan, Dr. Resnikoff has worked on radioactive issues since his first project at West Valley, New York in 1974.  His recent research focus has been on the risk of transporting and storing radioactive waste and the health impact of radioactive waste from oil and uranium production.  In June 2000, he was appointed by U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Bill Richardson to a federal Blue Ribbon Panel on Alternatives to Incineration.  

Additional background information will be provided at the time of the news event.

TO PARTICIPATE: You can join this live, phone-based news conference (with full, two-way Q&A) at 1 p.m. EDT/1700 GMT on March 16, 2011 by dialing 1 (800) 860-2442 in the U.S., 080-823-89064 in the United Kingdom or +1-412-858-4600 for callers outside the U.S./United Kingdom. Ask for the "radiation health exposure" telenews event.

CAN'T PARTICIPATE?:  A streaming audio replay of the news event will be available on the Web at http://www.psr.org/nuclear-bailout/  as of 4 p.m. EDT on March 16, 2011. 

MEDIA CONTACT:  Ailis Aaron Wolf, (703) 276-3265 or aawolf@hastingsgroup.com.

Physicians for Social Responsibility is the largest physician-led organization in the country articulating both the health risks and threats to human survival posed by nuclear weapons, climate change, nuclear reactors and toxic degradation of the environment.  PSR is dedicated to improving national policy formulation and decision-making about security, energy and the environment through the combined efforts of credible, committed health professionals and our active and concerned citizen members.  For more information, go to http://www.psr.org.