Antinuclear

The situation at West Lake is a particularly egregious example of federal negligence. The EPA, now increasingly beleaguered with mounting scandals such as lead poisoning in Flint, has done virtually nothing to clean-up the West Lake site. For 43 years, an escalatory track depicts increasing levels of sickness, disease, and death for nearby residents. We have been covering this evolving story in a series of articles including unpacking the convoluted history and delving into how and why this highly radiotoxic material was orphaned and left to plague the region. Dr. Caldicott’s visit next Saturday comes in the wake of the passage of a bipartisan U.S. Senate bill to replace the EPA with the Army Corps of Engineers as the lead agency to facilitate the site’s clean-up. Companion legislation is still pending in the U.S. House.

At Saturday’s symposium, Caldicott will be joined by Robert Alvarez, senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies and former senior policy advisor to the Secretary and Deputy Assistant Secretary for National Security and the Environment (1993-1999); Denise Brock, ombudsman for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health’s Office of Compensation Analysis and Support and the Centers for Disease Control; Dr. Sam Page, St. Louis County Councilman (Dist. 2); and Mark Harder, St. Louis County Councilman (Dist. 7). Ray Hartmann, of “St. Louis Magazine” and “Donnybrook,” will help further the dialog among these professionals and an audience of special guests, community members, academics and students.

An internationally recognized expert on the dangers of nuclear energy, Dr. Caldicott is the recipient of 21 honorary doctoral degrees in part for work on the nuclear disasters of Three Mile Island, Fukushima, and Chernobyl. As the founding president of the Physicians for Social Responsibility, she helped organize 23,000 medical professionals in educating the public about nuclear industry perils, and in 1985, the umbrella organization for these efforts was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In an exclusive with Examiner.com, I asked her to explain the purpose of her trip to St. Louis:

Helen Caldicott: “I’m very much looking forward to my trip to St. Louis and to the symposium held at the community college because I think it’s imperative that people—mothers, fathers, and grandparents—understand the medical dangers of living near a nuclear waste dump. It’s surprising to me that there hasn’t been one official data collection program by the Federal Government about how many cancers have been produced since this dump was initiated so many years ago and what sort of cancers they are. It’s quite astonishing to me that this has been neglected and the people living next door to this dump are victims of the Manhattan Project. So, I’m looking forward to explaining to people how radiation causes cancer, genetic abnormalities, and congenital defects; I’m looking forward to explain the decay cycle of uranium and thorium—they decay into many other elements, many of which are highly carcinogenic and dangerous. My main role and task at the symposium will be as a pediatrician and physician in talking to the people about the medical effects of this dreadful situation that they’re living with day-by-day, week-by-week, year-by-year.

I founded Physicians for Social Responsibility in 1978, an organization that was defunct for several years. We restarted it and recruited 23,000 physicians in America in 153 chapters, and we educated the American people about the medical dangers of all phases of the nuclear fuel chain from uranium mining, milling, and enrichment; nuclear power; nuclear waste; and nuclear weapons—but specifically, the medical implications of nuclear war. So I’ll be talking from that perspective……..

While the event is free and open to the public, reservations are required. To register, visithttps://goo.gl/dqGIs4.

Saturday, Feb. 20 from 6-9 p.m. at St. Louis Community College-Wildwood, 2645 Generations Drive in Wildwood, Missouri. http://www.examiner.com/article/helen-caldicott-to-conduct-nuclear-symposium-st-louis-the-atoms-next-door