From time to time someone will say to me, “Isn’t there some way we could get the government to understand and be motivated to do something about…………(fill in the blank).” Governments move when there is a critical mass of the people who are pressuring for change.

IICPH has always acted on the principles originally stated by Rosalie Bertell in her seminal book, No Immediate Danger:Prognosis for a Radioactive Earth. We share with others her strong call to expose the dangers. We have always tried to be an independent voice, presenting the peer reviewed scientific proof for our conclusions in language that is easy for the lay person to understand. We have maintained our independent voice by not taking donations from government or industry. By always presenting well-researched and referenced work, we have maintained our integrity.

In the twenty years since Rosalie’s No Immediate Danger was written, the danger from human-caused increases in ionizing radiation, particularly at low levels, is likely at a level where where every living thing on Earth has been exposed. Wars are being waged with so-called “depleted” uranium (DU) weapons. We have had one catastrophic accident, Chernobyl, and others that were extremely serious like Three Mile Island. Many lives have been broken and destroyed, suffered genetic damage, chronic disease or disability, heart and cardiovascular damage.

The list of consequences is almost endless. As climate change increases, nuclear wars may be inevitable. As time has gone on, electromagnetic radiation has increased in our living space and the dangers to health are receiving more attention. The number of toxic chemicals and heavy metals in our biosphere have proliferated year by year. Fortunately, more and more voices have been raised against sources of pollution. Many have come forward and demanded that changes needed to protect health and the environment be put in place by government. Twenty-three or more years later, the momentum has picked up as more people understand. Prominent personalities, such as Al Gore and David Suzuki, have joined the chorus and have helped make environment and climate change major concerns in many countries across the Planet.

However, when we are anaesthetized by those we are inclined to trust, such as our own governments, we can easily dismiss any threat. Messages sent over TV, time after time, telling us that nuclear power generation is the clean answer to coal-fired plants and also the answer to climate change calms the fears of those who cannot cope with the realities. Without the force of public opinion, governments are not moved to act against polluting energy industries, some like nuclear even being subsidized, or to promote green renewables.

The evil happening in a distant place to large numbers of people doesn’t usually move us to action. Only when we sense the threat to ourselves in our limited sphere do we usually become motivated. We can no longer afford to ignore what is happening. It is happening here and now wherever we are. How do we get our message across to attain that critical mass? I believe we must make the message up close and personal:how we are damaging our own descendants, through damaging the genomes. And so, I think we should proceed to develop a campaign that will concentrate on the personal. In other words, we should move our focus from trying to stop nuclear plants per se, and concentrate instead on revealing the sources and the extent of the damage to our genome and its impact on the next generations. A subtle change in tack, with the same destination in mind, might enhance our effectiveness in addressing this pressing problem.