International Conferences

Nuclear Weapons: The Final Pandemic
Preventing Proliferation and Achieving Abolition
October 3-4, 2007
London, England

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PROGRAM
[subject to change]

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2007

9-10:45 AM
Opening Plenary

The threat of nuclear weapons as the medical and public health imperative in the 21st century. Reaffirmation of 1984/87 WHO conclusion that "the only approach to the treatment of the health effects of nuclear warfare is primary prevention, that is, the prevention of nuclear war" and WHO Constitution proclamation that "the health of all peoples is fundamental to the attainment of peace and security and is dependent upon the fullest cooperation of individuals and States." Presentation of Sidel/Forrow updated paper on Medicine and Nuclear War.

Moderators: Gunnar Westberg, MD; Co-President, IPPNW
Steve Mannion; President, Catastrophes and Conflict Forum, Royal Society of Medicine

Welcoming Remarks: TBD

Speakers:
1. Masao Tomonaga, MD; Nagasaki survivor, Member of the Board, IPPNW
2. TBD
3. Victor W. Sidel, Former Co-President, IPPNW

COFFEE BREAK

11:00 AM - 12:30 PM
Plenary - Climate Effects of Regional Nuclear War

Presentation of study "Climate Consequences of Regional Nuclear Conflicts." Presentation of IPPNW study on medical and public heath corollaries.

Moderator: Andy Haines, MD; Dean, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Speakers:
1. O. B. Toon, PhD; Department of Atmospheric & Oceanic Science, University of Colorado at Boulder
2. Alan Robock, PhD; School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, Rutgers University
3. Ira Helfand, MD; IPPNW

12:30 PM -2:00 PM
LUNCH

Exhibits
Preview: The Nuclear Dilemma
Major books, publications, and campaign materials produced over the past 30 years (or more) on the medical implications of nuclear war.

2:00 PM - 2:30 PM
HEU and Medical Research Reactors: A Hidden Source of Nuclear Terrorism

Moderator: Bill Williams, MBBS; Medical Association for the Prevention of War, Australia

Speaker: Martin Kalinowski, Director, Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker Center for Science and Peace Research (ZNF), Germany

2:30 PM - 4:00 PM
Plenary - Radiation and Health

A close examination of current medical and epidemiological knowledge about low-dose exposures to ionizing radiation; the health impacts of uranium mining and nuclear weapons manufacture on indigenous and downwider communities and nuclear workers; and government and industry efforts to block data collection and health research related to occupational and community exposures.

Moderators: David Rush, MD; Emeritus Professor of Nutrition, Community Health (epidemiology), and Pediatrics, Tufts University and TBD

Speakers:
1. Steve Wing, PhD; Associate Professor of Epidemiology, University of North Carolina School of Public Health
2. Dr. Ian Fairlie; Independent consultant on radiation and health; Member of Secretariat, Committee Examining Radiation Risks of Internal Emitters (CERRIE), Member of Medact Executive Committee

Respondent: Martin Tondel, MD; Department of Molecular and Clinical Medicine, Linköping University, Sweden

TEA BREAK

4:30 PM - 6:00 PM
Plenary - Destruction Before Detonation

Part 1: The Legacy of Nuclear Testing

Nuclear test sites in Australia, Russia, the US, and elsewhere in the world, while they have been inactive for more than a decade, continue to pose health and environmental threats about which the public is largely unaware.

Moderator: Tilman Ruff, MD; President, MAPW

Speaker: TBD

Part 2: The Human Impacts of Uranium Mining

Uranium mining and milling, whether to supply the fuel for nuclear weapons or for nuclear power reactors, have had a devastating impact on the health of mine workers and their families, even without the explosion of a single nuclear weapon. New uranium mining operations throughout the world, including Australia, India, and the US, will impose unwanted - and unnecessary - health burdens on a whole new generation of indigenous communities.

Moderator: Ime John, MD, Co-President, IPPNW

Speakers:
1. Satyajit Kumar Singh, MBBS; MS; MCh (Urology); Vice President, Indian Doctors for Peace and Development
2. Australian speaker [TBD]

7:00 PM
Dinner - Keynote Speaker

Possible Speakers:
TBD

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2007

Conference participants will participate in six breakout sessions - three in the morning and three in the afternoon, running concurrently - to develop specific work plans for carrying forward the research, education, and advocacy work of IPPNW and the international physicians movement.

Each group will be tasked with conducting an in-depth discussion of the needs and capacities of the medical movement for nuclear abolition related to the assigned topic, and will make recommendations for carrying high priority tasks forward in the context of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN).

Morning Session 9-11:30AM

1) Climate effects of low-yield nuclear war: Setting a research and education agenda
Chair: Andy Haines, MD; Dean, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Core group: Brian Toon, Alan Robock, Ira Helfand, MD

2) The psychosocial dimnsions of nuclearism: the human faces of nuclear war; lost opportunities for health, development, and sustainability
Chair: Elisabeth McElderry, MD; Medact
Core group: Daniele Viliunas, MD, Gunnar Westberg, MD

3) Vertical and horizontal proliferation -- the growing threat to health and life from new nuclear weaons, new nuclear infrastructures, and new nuclear policies
Chair: John Loretz; Program Director, IPPNW
Core group: Bob Gould, MD; Past President, PSR-USA; Satyajit Kumar Singh, India

Afternoon Session 1-3:30PM

4) Radiation and Health -- the legacy of nuclear testing and the public health hazards of continued reliance on nuclear weapons: Scientific data as a basis for activism
Chair: David Rush, MD
Core group: Steve Wing, Ian Fairlie, Martin Tondel

5) The nuclear weapnos-nuclear energy link: Can one be abolished without the other?
Chair: TBD
Core group: Bill Williams, MD

6) Nuclear terror: Exploring options for prevention and preparedness
Chair: Ira Helfand, MD
Core Group:Catherine Thomasson, MD; Gunnar Westberg, MD

4:00 PM - 5:30PM
Working Group Reports

Closing Plenary - How to Eliminate the Nuclear Threat; Rewards of Success, Consequences of Failure

The world has been given a false choice in confronting the nuclear threat: either live with a growing number of nuclear weapon states, or prevent new states from acquiring nuclear weapons by any means necessary, while allowing the existing nuclear powers to retain their arsenals. Yet the chances that nuclear weapons will be used only increase with the number of owners, and the lessons of pre-emptive war in Iraq and the predictable outcomes of similar attacks against Iran, the DPRK, or elsewhere have made it clear that there are no military solutions to the problem of proliferation. There is a third option, however, that has been given short shrift in the policy debate: the abolition of nuclear weapons, which are incompatible with human survival in anyone's hands.

Moderator: June Crown, MD; President, Medact

Speakers:
1. Catherine Thomasson, MD; President, PSR [The military and humanitarian consequences of an attack against Iran]
2. Shahriar Khateri, MD; President, Society of Chemical Weapons Victims Support, Tehran [The Iranian perspective]
3. Ron McCoy, MD; Former Co-President, IPPNW ["Abolition is the Third, Best, an d Only Option:]

Closing Ceremony: Candlelight Procession