PSR was founded in the United States in 1962 in response to the unprecedented threat to human life and survival posed by the advent of nuclear weapons and the nuclear arms race unfolding during the Cold War. At the outset, landmark studies by PSR physicians demonstrated that use of nuclear weapons would result in human injury, suffering and mortality which could not be ameliorated or treated by medicine and that therefore the responsibility of physicians was to promote prevention. Continued medical investigation demonstrated the widespread and persistent threat to human health and the environment caused by nuclear weapons testing and production. Finally, PSR demonstrated that "destruction before detonation" resulted from the diversion of resources from health and human needs to nuclear armaments, preparation for war and war itself.

The unique and powerful voice of physicians through PSR proved to be extremely effective in informing the public of these threats and in mitigating the dangers by producing public pressure for nuclear disarmament.

Based upon the success and experience of PSR, as the Cold War was reaching its apogee in 1980 and the nuclear superpowers, the US and USSR, were openly discussing nuclear war-fighting as a reality, the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) was founded to provide a global reach for the efforts of physicians to prevent "the last epidemic". It joined the voices of physicians from the US and USSR to oppose nuclear testing and other nuclear war preparation, and ultimately produced an 80 nation federation of 200,000 physicians, including PSR as the US affiliate.

Today, PSR and IPPNW continue to provide the special and essential voice of doctors and medicine for the prevention of nuclear weapons spread and use. With the extraordinary historic opportunity of the end of the Cold War and the demise of its justification for core dependence on nuclear deterrence, PSR and IPPNW are continuing to promote the overarching goal of nuclear abolition as an essential objective in the new millennium. Simultaneously, its has actively worked for a CTB Treaty, Nuclear-Free Zone Treaties and supported arguments for the illegality of nuclear weapons threat or use before the International Court of Justice in the Hague.

In the United States, PSR is working for nuclear abolition, as well as addressing issues of environmental health threats and domestic gun violence. In Western Pennsylvania, PSR-Pittsburgh has chosen to focus its efforts on: preventing and opposing war; nuclear proliferation and terrorism; and the threats to health from nuclear weapons production and diversion of resources from health and human needs to nuclear weaponry and wasteful or unnecessary military programs.

Milestones in the Physicians Movement For Nuclear Disarmament

1962 - landmark article published in the New England Journal of Medicine, demonstrated the medical consequences of nuclear war on a typical U.S. city.

1963 - disseminated findings of radioactive fall-out in teeth and bones of children and called for end to nuclear tests. Limited Test Ban Treaty signed by Kennedy (US) and Krushchev (USSR)

1980-1990 and ongoing - unified voice of physicians against nuclear weapons in US and around the world: promoted treaties to lessen the danger of nuclear war - e.g. SALT, START, and CTB Treaties; investigated and exposed environmental contamination, nuclear experiments and deliberate releases and secrecy at US nuclear weapons complex; published authoritative reports and studies on health and environmental risks of nuclear weapons production, health and environmental effects of nuclear weapons testing, plutonium hazards, and threats of nuclear terrorism;

1985 - Nobel Peace Prize awarded to IPPNW for using the unified voice of US and USSR physicians to inform the citizens of the dangers of nuclear war.

1990 to present - PSR and IPPNW promoted an end to nuclear explosion testing through a moratorium and a Comprehensive Test Ban (CTB) Treaty, which was adopted and signed in 1996 by US and more than 150 nations, though still unratified by the US.

1991 - 1996 - The International Court of Justice held hearings and finally issued an Advisory Opinion that threat or use of nuclear weapons would violate international law under virtually all circumstances and that nuclear nations were obligated to negotiate complete nuclear disarmament, as a result of efforts initiated by IPPNW and by the World Health Organization and the UN General Assembly.

1995 - PSR and IPPNW issued a Call for Abolition of Nuclear Weapons .

1996 to present - worked to reduce the nuclear dangers and promote steps toward nuclear abolition: CTB, sharp reductions; de-alerting; development and adoption of Nuclear Weapons convention; prevention of nuclear terrorism and accidental nuclear war; NPT strengthening; and opposing BMD and ABM.

Activities and Achievements of PSR-Pittsburgh

The activities of PSR-Pittsburgh are designed to promote adoption of its stands by research, education, advocacy and action. Its guiding framework is a step by step strategy based on: education and advocacy at the grass roots directed to health professionals and the general public; getting support and documenting it at the grass roots; enlarging support through coalitions and alliances; and projecting support to elected representatives and the national administration to contribute to the political will needed for change at the highest levels ---

EDUCATION AND ADVOCACY AT GRASS ROOTS

ISSUES focused on serious health threats and needed action on:

Nuclear weapons - nuclear weapons effects and policies, 1945 Hiroshima-Nagasaki bombs, proliferation, terrorism, new warhead development, opposition to anti-ballistic missile (BMD) systems, steps to nuclear disarmament, and imperative of abolition.
War - medical and public health disaster of modern war, costs in resources and civilian casualties, opposition to ongoing Iraq War, and need for Smart Security program and policies to prevent wars and terrorism.
Environment - health effects of environmental contamination from air pollution, mercury, antibiotic feeds, and nuclear waste.

AUDIENCES addressed encompassed a wide spectrum of people:

Physicians and other health professionals; students - high school, college and postgraduate, medical; religious groups; non-governmental groups - Rotary clubs, League of Women Voters, and teach-in attendees; participants in conferences, demonstrations and marches; and the general public.

MODES of communication:

Talks, slides shows, and videos; literature tables and leafleting; PSR exhibitions; sponsoring and endorsing conferences; visible participants in vigils, demonstrations and marches; sponsoring annual film festival; petition distributions and collections; action alerts; communication media - press releases, press conferences, print media opeds, letters to the editor, meetings with editors, interviews on local TV and radio, radio spot ads, internet web site, e-mails to alert lists; and peace park images.

GETTING SUPPORT AND DOCUMENTING IT AT GRASS ROOTS

Support of PSR issues, resulting from education and advocacy, is achieved and documented by solicitation of individuals and groups:

• Endorsing statements on issues by community leaders, religious leaders, and elected officials
• Resolutions by organizations and city councils
• Proclamations or declarations by city mayors
• Petitions signed by citizens

ENLARGING SUPPORT THROUGH COALITIONS AND ALLIANCES

• Support of PSR issues by allied groups and coalitions
• Participation in related events sponsored by allied groups
• Endorsement of common issues and events advocated by other groups

Support of issues by local citizens, leaders and organizations is communicated to elected US political representatives (in U.S. Congress and Administration) to contribute to national political will for support of PSR issues and positions, by:

• Action Alerts to local citizens to contact Congress and Administration
• Urging support for issues by phone, letter, and e-mail to Congress and President
• Delegations to officials in Congress and Administration here and in Washington
• Participation in demonstration here and nationally
• Delegations to primary election campaigns in this area

1970s - 1980 - worked to end the Vietnam War and for nuclear disarmament
1980s - 1990 - joined with other citizens groups in local coalitions, to create and promote a popular consensus at the "grass roots" opposing the threat or use of nuclear weapons.
1990s - present - In the post-Cold War period, PSR-Pittsburgh focused increasingly on damage and dangers of the nuclear weapons legacy, imperative of nuclear abolition, prevention and ending of wars, promotion of "Smart Security", and a change in budget priorities to support real health and security needs

SELECTED ACTIVITIES AND ACHIEVEMENTS 1990 - 2005

• Initiated a grassroots coalition, with Pennsylvania Peace Links and World Federalist Association (now renamed Global Solutions), called the Western Pennsylvania Campaign for a Comprehensive Test Ban, with name change in 1996 to Abolition 2000: The W. PA Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.

• Promoted circulation of petitions supporting ban on nuclear tests, nuclear disarmament and abolition, and the Smart Security Platform, with almost 10 thousand signatures in toto.

• Generated resolutions of support by the Pittsburgh City Council, the Pittsburgh Mayor, Allegheny County Medical Society, Pennsylvania Medical Society and the World Association of Disaster and Emergency Medicine, variously for the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, and nuclear non-proliferation, de-alerting, and abolition.

• Arranged and participated in delegations of doctors and local citizens, which met in Pittsburgh area, Wash DC and the UN in New York, with government officials from the US State Department, U.S. Department of Energy, Pentagon, White House, US Senate (Arlen Specter and Rick Santorum), US House of Representatives (Bill Coyne, Melissa Hart, Mike Doyle), US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, and US UN delegation -- to promote the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, steps to nuclear disarmament, opposition to the war in Iraq, with oral presentations and documentation of grassroots support.

• Promoted Cancer Incidence Study in contaminated area of the Babcock & Wilcox nuclear fuel plant in Apollo, and compensation of victims.

• Endorsed and participated in events with Sierra Club, Clean Water Action and the Group Against Smog and Pollution, Earthday Coalition, and Citizens Budget Campaign

• Presented lectures and slide shows -"The Abolition of Nuclear Weapons: The Time is Now", and "Smart Security Platform", to civic groups (more than 50 to Rotary Clubs alone), student groups, and religious groups.

• Arranged exhibitions on Medical and Environmental Effects of Nuclear Weapons at local events, libraries, schools, churches, and hospitals.

• Publicized and disseminated PSR-IPPNW initiated medical articles, "Accidental Nuclear War - A Post-Cold War Assessment", in New England Journal of Medicine (1998), "Medicine and Nuclear War", in Journal of the American Medical Association (1998), and "Nuclear Terrorism", in British Medical Journal (2002), emphasizing the dangers in the Pittsburgh area.

• Initiated conference in 1999 in Pittsburgh, "Eliminating Weapons of Mass Destruction: Why Not Nuclear Abolition", which brought together the university community, Rotary, League of Women Voters, and local disarmament groups, local citizens, national and local experts, and 450 attendees.

• Presented to a wide audience of the media - radio, TV, print, internet - important information: on public health and security consequences of nuclear terrorism and war, nuclear test explosions and waste, nuclear "bunker busters" and proliferation, war in Iraq, environmental pollution and diversion of needed resources from excessive military spending; by news articles and programs, op-eds, letters to the editor, public events, interviews, talk shows, radio spot advertisements, media briefings and press conferences, press releases, and meetings with editors; via local radio -- WPTT, KQV, WDUQ, KDKA, and WRTC, local TV -- WQED, KDKA, WBGN, WTAE and WPXI, local print media -- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Valley News Dispatch, The New People, and Bulletin of ACMS, and the internet -- web site, www.smartsecuritypittsburgh.org and e-mail action alerts.

• Initiated annual Film Series, "Nuclear Sundays" and "Visions of War", beginning in 2001, sponsored by PSR-Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh Filmmakers, including post-screening commentary and discussions, and with a total audience of more than 1000 citizens.

• Conducted campaign for the Smart Security Platform in area with media briefing, petitions, slide show presentations, and showings of DVD video, "Health Effects of War: Seeking Smart Security", produced by Oregon PSR.

• Supported a Peace Park featuring the iron sculpture, “The Indestructible Human”, by Frederick Franke, adjoining the Pittsburgh northside bicycle path.

• Contributed to national support for adoption of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty in 1996 , and for successful opposition to development of new nuclear warheads (mini nukes and bunker buster) in 2004 and 2005.

• Contributed to broad opposition to current Iraq War: by visible participation in local vigils and antiwar demonstrations here and in Wash DC; by participation at teach-ins and interviews on radio and TV; and by sponsoring radio spots opposing the war.