Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility

Dear Oregon PSR Supporter,

This has been a year of transition, growth, and transformative partnerships for Oregon PSR. When I look back at the past year, I am proud to see how we’ve strengthened authentic partnership with communities most impacted by the injustices of climate chaos and nuclear weapons. At the same time, we’ve had more elected officials reaching out to us for our input on policy, as well as more health professionals finding a home for their activism within Oregon PSR. In the face of the overwhelming challenges of our times, I am convinced that Oregon PSR has a critical role to play in building movements for a healthy future.

It is with great pleasure that Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility announces our twelfth annual Greenfield Peace Writing Scholarship. Any 11th or 12th grade Oregon high school student may enter by submitting an original essay, poem, or narrative work (maximum 600 words) in response to the following question: "How would an effective movement for climate justice benefit immigrant communities?"

Oregon PSR expresses our sincere appreciation to everyone who joined us on the evening of Tuesday, August 6th at the Japanese American Historical Plaza for the annual Portland-area Hiroshima and Nagasaki memorial event. This year's event, The Unequal Impacts of Nuclear Weapons: Hiroshima & Nagasaki Memorial 2019, explored the disproportionate impacts that nuclear weapons have had, and continue to have, on women, children, indigenous communities, and communities of color around the world.

Oregon PSR staff and members mobilized to advocate for and against a long list of bills in the 2019 state legislative session in Salem this year. The 2019 session yielded a wide range of progressive, health-protective policies and discussions and concluded with a significant handful of long-awaited victories, including support for nuclear disarmament, better oil train safety measures, equal access to roads for all Oregonians, and a major step forward on cleaning up Oregon's dirty diesel problem. Several dangerous measures that would have weakened Oregon's renewable energy goals and created loopholes for new nuclear power were successfully blocked from passage. We thank all those who volunteered their time and energy to advance our mission to protect public health from the gravest threats to survival in the Oregon state legislature this year.

Please save the date and plan to join us on Tuesday, August 6th, 6:00 - 7:00 PM at the Japanese American Historical Plaza (NW Naito Parkway and Couch Street on the Portland waterfront) for the annual Portland-area Hiroshima and Nagasaki memorial event. This year's event, The Unequal Impacts of Nuclear Weapons, will explore the disproportionate impacts that nuclear weapons have on women, children, indigenous communities, and communities of color.

In June of 2019, Oregon’s House of Representatives voted to approve Senate Joint Memorial 5 (SJM 5), which urges Congress to lead a global effort to reduce the threat of nuclear war, making it the second state in the nation (after California) to pass such legislation in both chambers.

The bill was introduced at the request of Oregon PSR and the support of 31 partner organizations around the state and garnered moving testimony from a Japanese hibakusha (atomic bomb survivor), a Hanford Downwinder, an Atomic Veteran, the Oregon Marshallese Community, a Corvallis city councilor, and others. Chief Sponsors  included Senator Michael Dembrow and Representatives Tawna Sanchez and Alissa Keny-Guyer, along with 15 other Oregon state legislators.

This column was written by Oregon PSR program assistant Madison Arnold-Scerbo, and was originally published in Street Roots. Interested in learning more about Hanford or how to go on one of these tours yourself? Send an email to madison@oregonpsr.org.

About 74,000 people died when the United States deployed a nuclear bomb on Nagasaki in 1945. Thousands more died and suffered health consequences over the following decades. 

Thousands of people continue to face negative health consequences from the intentional releases of radiation and atomic waste from nuclear tests during the Cold War in the United States. 

At least 120 Hanford workers in and around the tank farms have been exposed to toxic vapors since January 2015. This exposure can lead to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, decrease in lung capacity, toxic encephalopathy and cancer. 

But you won’t learn any of these facts by attending a tour of the Hanford nuclear facility near Richland, Wash., the most polluted place in the Western Hemisphere. I know, because I attended two of these tours. I sat through eight hours of romanticization of nuclear weapons and patriotic indoctrination. Both tours I attended, Clean Up and B Reactor, provide a misleading and one-sided view one of the darkest periods of our history.