Radiation and Public Heath Project, Inc.

The Radiation and Public Heath Project was established by scientists and physicians dedicated to understanding the relationships between low-level, nuclear radiation and public health.

Helen Caldicott

For over 40 years, Dr. Helen Caldicott has devoted her life to an international campaign to educate the public about the medical hazards of the nuclear age and the necessary changes in human behavior to stop environmental destruction.

We have reviewed numerous book written by Dr. Helen Caldicott. You can read those reviews here.

Norma Field

Norma Field grew up in Tokyo, Japan, with an American father and Japanese mother. Listening to her parents’ conflicting views on Pacific nuclear weapons testing turned out to be her introduction to the atomic age. She first came to the US at college age. Her BA is from Pitzer Collge, MA from Indiana University, and PhD from Princeton University. Now professor emerita, she began her career at the Department of East Asian Languages & Civilizations of the University of Chicago as a scholar of classical Japanese literature. Her most recent publications are Ima, “Heiwa” o honki de kataru ni wa: Inochi, jiyu, rekishi [To seriously talk peace today: Life, freedom, history]; The Fukushima Nuclear Disaster and the Tokyo Olympics (introduction and translation of Koide Hiroaki). With Yuki Miyamoto, she maintains the Atomic Age website.

The Fukushima Nuclear Disaster occurred just as she was preparing to retire from thirty years’ of teaching at the University of Chicago. That disaster brought together questions that have always been important to her : what are people able and willing to understand, given economic, social, and political constraints, in such a crisis? How do taboos get set in place, silencing people and alienating them from profound anxieties about themselves and their children because of radiation, the invisible intruder? How do these reverberate with the still unresolved history of atomic bombing?

Until the pandemic, Field traveled on average twice a year to Fukushima. She has organized symposia, translated and written on Fukushima. Recent publications include  Fukushima Radiation: Will You Still Say No Crime Has Been Committed? (editor and co-translator, 2015) and “This will still be true tomorrow: ‘Fukushima ain’t got the time for Olympic Games’” (2020).

Timothy Mousseau

Dr. Mousseau has worked with Fairewinds for many years now. Since 1999, along with his collaborators, Mousseau has explored the ecological and evolutionary consequences of the radioactive contaminants affecting populations of birds, insects and people inhabiting the Chernobyl region of Ukraine. Their research suggests that many species of plants and animals suffer from increased mutational loads as a result of exposure to radionuclides stemming from the Chernobyl disaster.

Mary Olson

Biologist Mary Olson is clear her life’s mission is to bring to light to the disproportionate impact of radiation on girls and women.

Mary Olson is the founder, and acting Director of Gender and Radiation Impact Project (GRIP) a non-government, educational organization based in North Carolina, USA. Originally a student of Biology and Life Science, Olson’s work on radiation is rooted in a three-decade career as an educator and advocate for better radioactive waste policy in the United States. During that work, a novel question was posed to Olson, on whether biological sex is a factor in radiation harm. In 2011 Olson undertook an independent gender analysis of the data reported in the US National Academy of Science (NAS) report on the Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation, which is primarily from the A-bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Her findings were striking and resulted in a series of presentations in United Nations proceedings, including the Vienna Conference on the Humanitarian Impacts of Nuclear Weapons in 2014, the 2015 Review Conference of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) and in 2017 during the negotiation phase of the new Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). Olson was also hosted to present the findings that radiation is more harmful to females compared to males, by the International Committee of the Red Cross both in 2016 and 2020. She has also presented at Gender Summits (EU) in 2016 and 2018.