FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Scott Cullen
(516) 324-0655

Pro-nuclear and anti-nuclear researchers and advocates to engage in historic debate on the safe level of exposure to nuclear radiation

A groundbreaking symposium, "Recent Studies of Low Level Radiation and Implications for Medicine and the Nuclear Industry," will be the first meeting of leading scientists from both sides of the controversy over the safe level of exposure to nuclear radiation. The two-day event, to be held September 26-27 at the New York Academy of Medicine, brings together international experts in health physics, epidemiology, nuclear power, nuclear weapons, and public health to discuss new findings on low-level nuclear radiation.

The critical issues they will debate include:

• New evidence that extremely low levels of radiation -- far below the level currently recognized as dangerous -- might damage human genes to the point of mutation;

• The causes of elevated mortality rates among workers at U.S. Department of Energy nuclear facilities;

• Cancer clusters surrounding commercial nuclear power facilities;

• The potential health problems associated with irradiating food;

• The safety of federal plans to allow the use of recycled radioactive metal in consumer products such as refrigerators, cooking utensils, and jewelry; and

• Continuing problems with nuclear waste transportation and disposal.

The symposium has been organized by the STAR Foundation (Standing for Truth About Radiation) and is sponsored by the Foundation for Better Health Care in collaboration with UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School, Department of Preventive Medicine.

"Nuclear radiation issues are a matter of continuing controversy," states Dr. Donald Louria, chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine at the New Jersey Medical School. "For scientists from left, right, and center on these issues to meet in an open forum is really unique. The symposium is a vital first step toward reaching a scientific consensus on questions that affect the health of every man, woman, and child in this and future generations."

"The symposium is not only the first of its kind," adds Dr. Helen Caldicott, vice-president and co-founder of STAR and founding president of Physicians for Social Responsibility, the group which organized the original symposia on the medical consequences of nuclear war in the 1980s. "It is also especially timely, because the National Academy of Sciences and the Environmental Protection Agency have begun work on the seventh report on the Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation (BEIR). BEIR VII's recommendations will influence how much radiation the public is exposed to in the future, and it is vital that the process be opened up to the full range of scientific perspectives. The symposium can serve as a model for that, because it is the first time that leading scientists with opposing views on the key issues will sit down together in the same room for a free and open exchange. The debate will no doubt be intense, exciting, and sometimes difficult, but I am sure that in the end we will all have learned from each other."

The symposium will feature a press conference at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, September 27. At the press conference, symposium panelists will comment on BEIR VII and other health and public policy implications of their research.

For more information on the symposium, including press passes to the event and the news conference, please contact Scott Cullen at the STAR Foundation, 516-324-0655.