18.02.2021 IPPNW mourns the loss of our co-founder Dr. Bernard Lown, just months short of his 100th birthday.

Dr. Lown was a tireless visionary and pragmatic activist whose example continues to inspire countless physicians, students, and citizens worldwide. Those who knew Dr. Lown know that he would insist that the most meaningful way to honor his memory will be to carry on his work.

To honor Dr. Lown, we invite people inspired by his legacy share your memories and express your thoughts to us.

Read the entire obituary here: peaceandhealthblog

15.12.2020 With innovative ways to stay connected, the IPPNW Associate Program is the new heartbeat of a growing global IPPNW movement. Whether or not you are connected to your local IPPNW affiliate, you are invited to join the Associate Program and become an IPPNW Nuclear War Preventer. As a Nuclear War Preventer, you will; be able to participate in the worldwide peace and health actions of IPPNW and our affiliate networks; be invited to special events, both digital and in-person international meetings; receive special appreciation and acknowledgement on our website and in our publications, and; receive a personalized, beautiful certificate signed by IPPNW leaders and an "IPPNW War Preventer" pin. Your contribution to become an IPPNW Associate will help us expand our activist and donor base to keep IPPNW growing, vibrant, and effective to strengthen our critical work to abolish nuclear weapons and advocate for peace.

15.12.2020 Forty years ago, a small group of visionary physicians gathered at the Hotel Le Richemond in Geneva from 5-7 December to lay the foundation for what is now IPPNW.  At this initial meeting of IPPNW founders, American physicians Bernard Lown, James Muller, and Eric Chivian and Soviet physicians Evgeny Chazov, Leonid Illyin, and Mikhail Kuzin resolved to set politics and ideology aside in order to address the greatest threat to human life of all time. Thus was born IPPNW's tireless effort to eradicate nuclear weapons. As we mark our 40th year of activism for a world without nuclear weapons, we also look forward to celebrating the entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons on 22 January 2021 – one of our most significant milestones yet.

24.10.2020 On October 24, Honduras became the 50th nation to ratify the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). By crossing the 50 ratification threshold, this means that in 90 days, on 22 January 2021, the treaty will enter into legal force and become international law, binding on the states that have already ratified it, and all those which subsequently ratify the treaty. Honduras announced its ratification one day after Jamaica and Nauru joined the TPNW at the United Nations in New York. This is a historic achievement, an essential step to eliminate nuclear weapons, and an enormous win for planetary health.

16.10.2020 As states around the world continue to grapple with the coronavirus pandemic, fears are mounting in many places for already disenfranchised and vulnerable communities. In Sri Lanka, a region that has been torn by decades of ethnic conflict and suffers from continued reports of human rights abuses, those fears have been particularly accentuated for the most oppressed on the island, as a spike of infections were reported this month. The government, headed by strongman and accused war criminal president Gotabaya Rajapaksa, has taken on a markedly authoritarian approach to dealing with the crisis. And with coronavirus cases rising once more, that has worryingly placed human rights at further risk.

16.07.2020 You could be excused for having missed the fact that NATO is in the process of updating its nuclear strategy, including substantial and significant steps. These include technologically more ambitious weapons that can be used more easily. This is the implementation of a decision made at the NATO Warsaw Summit in 2016 to revise nuclear strategy. In order to follow what’s going on, you have to dig deep on the internet. While this is a little easier because of Covid-19, as a lot more is happening online and NATO is just a little bit more transparent that before the pandemic, it is still difficult because NATO discussions are still shrouded in secrecy.

11.05.2020 Across the world, scientists and public health experts are producing new ideas, knowledge and technologies to combat COVID-19. The degree of cross-border sharing of data, research methods and evidence has been heartwarming, and underlines the vital role played by trans-national communities of scientists and experts. However, the story of every epidemic is a story of the interplay between knowledge, ideology and politics. And within each of these stories, the role of government is crucial in determining how epidemics play out in populations. Not only do governments decide on how science and evidence informs policies and plans; they are central to how policies and plans are implemented.

12.06.2020 The COVID-19 pandemic teaches lessons we must embrace to overcome two additional existential threats: nuclear war and global warming. Health professionals need to send a message to those whose lives we have vowed to protect: all three threats result from forces of nature made dangerous by triumphs of human intelligence, and all three can be solved by human intelligence.

26.05.2020 The news that the Trump administration is considering resuming nuclear weapons testing is morally abhorrent. The current US moratorium on nuclear testing was put in place for many reasons, but we must not forget one crucial reason: In conducting explosive nuclear tests, the US government killed thousands of innocent people and sickened untold thousands more. The very suggestion of resuming nuclear testing is shocking and a slap in the face to testing survivors who have spent decades watching their loved ones pass away—survivors like Sandra Walsh, of Salt Lake City, who grew up in Parowan in southern Utah, which received high levels of fallout from the Nevada Test Site.

22.05.2020 This book provides a window into the work of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) health professionals, advocates and activists as they persuaded diplomats, parliamentarians, the media, and the public to ban nuclear weapons. Why are doctors speaking out about nuclear weapons and nuclear war, an issue that seems to be the exclusive province of diplomats, politicians, and security experts? This volume offers an answer in the unique perspective of health professionals on the nature of nuclear weapons, their medical and humanitarian consequences, and the responsibility to prevent what cannot be treated.

18.05.2020 The world is seized with tackling COVID-19 which is being perceived as biggest health threat to the humanity today. True, this virus is more lethal than other Corona viruses. There is an all out effort by the scientists around the world to develop vaccines to boost immunity in the body to enable it to fight back the infection. The world is hoping that soon we shall develop herd immunity so that the impact of COVID-19 gets reduced. Scientists and medical professionals have warned from time to time about various diseases and cautioned about the imminent health emergencies. They have also guided about the steps to be taken to prevent such happenings. The International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) has warned the global community about a highly grave threat to humanity for which we have no remedy. This is from the nuclear weapons. The use of nuclear weapons would be the final epidemic. Prevention is the only way out as we do not have any remedy to offer in such an eventuality.

11.05.2020 Soon after the COVID-19 pandemic reached the UK, it became clear that the NHS was not sufficiently equipped or staffed to respond to the crisis. In March, the government put out a call for industry to convert its production to manufacture crucial medical equipment, such as ventilators and PPE for frontline workers. To date, a number of arms and defence companies have responded to this call – alongside existing companies that manufacture medical equipment and others. Workers at Lucas Aerospace called for exactly this kind of arms conversion back in 1976, when they produced an Alternative Corporate Plan – now known as the Lucas Plan. In this webinar we discussed what a ‘just transition’ from industries that cause destruction to those that support peace and public health could and should look like.

05.05.2020 COVID-19 has brought into the public consciousness the inherent interconnectedness of public health globally. When public health is threatened in one country or amongst one community, the ripple effects are felt across the world. Despite this, some countries that have or may be heavily impacted by the pandemic have not met with support from the international community. Amongst these, Iran, Cuba and Venezuela continue to face US-led sanctions programmes, whilst the Israeli Government has enforced a blockade of the Gaza Strip for the last 13 years. Sanctions have been weakening the public health systems of these countries for decades and, if they are not lifted, they will have grave impacts on their ability to tackle COVID-19. But sanctions also represent a threat to the global struggle to treat the pandemic: with nations imposing them failing to realise that the global community must be united to minimise the spread of COVID-19.

02.05.2020 This year we commemorate 75 years since the end of World War II. I was born 24 years after the end of it, in the city of Bremen in Germany. When I was young I thought: “The war? What a long time ago.” Now, at the age of 51, I realize how little time had passed. Of course I have no personal memories or experiences of wartime, but my life was influenced by those who had suffered. It is important to keep the memories and the debate alive, so that history will not repeat itself. This is why I wrote this text.

21.04.2020 The nuclear industry is trying yet again to advertise nuclear power as a form of "clean energy" that can allegedly save the climate. The facts however, tell a different story. Both fossil and nuclear energy exploit limited natural ressources, cause environmental destruction and pose health risks, severely violating human rights. The German affiliate of the IPPNW therefore advocates a rapid phase-out of both fossil and nuclear energy generation and has released an informative fact sheet explaining the reasons why nuclear energy should not be seen as a viable option for the future.

17.04.2020 As doctors responding to this crisis, the past few weeks have been filled not just with treatment and crisis management but with frustration. Frustration because the Covid-19 pandemic did not just "sneak up on us." Public health experts have been warning us for decades; we simply chose not to listen. The Trump administration has been rightly criticized for its epically inept response to this crisis.

07.04.2020 We live with a profound paradox. Our lives are powerfully affected by worldwide economic, communications, transportation, food supply, and entertainment systems. Yet we continue an outdated faith in the nation-state, with all the divisiveness, competition, and helplessness that faith produces when dealing with planetary problems.

09.03.2020 On February 13th, 2020, the Oversight Committee of  the  Fukushima  Health  Management  Survey presented the new set of thyroid cancer data (up until September 30th, 2019). After the initial screening of approximately 300,000 children who were living in Fuku-shima  Prefecture  at  the  time  of  the  multiple  nuclear meltdowns or were born shortly thereafter (2011-2014), follow-up examinations were carried out every two years. The second examinations has already been completed, the third one is in its final phase and the fourth series of examinations has now been underway since 2018.

15.01.2020 Women have always and everywhere been part of the history of uranium processing and nuclear technology—as workers in uranium production, as residents in the vicinity of mines, or as victims of military and civilian nuclear disasters. Women are particularly vulnerable to the health effects of uranium production because they are twice as sensitive to radiation as men. Indigenous women suffer doubly, because uranium extraction and nuclear weapons testing takes place in large part in (formerly) colonial areas. Resistance against uranium mining and nuclear technology is supported by female doctors, physicists, and journalists all over the world, who raise awareness about the consequences, which are otherwise often whitewashed or inadequately documented. Nevertheless, women’s role in organizing the struggle against nuclear weapons and energy remains extremely underexposed.

14.10.2019 The strongest reasons to oppose expanding nuclear technology are the military links and weapons proliferation. Although the world will get more energy-hungry, reliable and cheaper renewables could rapidly replace fossil fuels with no need to expand the uneconomic nuclear option. Coordinating renewables’ expansion with poverty alleviation, especially in Africa, offers a win-win for promoting peace and reversing anthropogenic climate change through nuclear-free decarbonization.
To correspond with the recent publication of the paper ‘How Nuclear Power powers the Bomb’, co-authored by Angelika Claussen (European regional vice president of IPPNW), Frank Boulton (Medact) and Alex Rosen (IPPNW-Germany), Medact published a blog by Frank Boulton outlining the financial, environmental, health and geo-political arguments around nuclear power.

20.09.2019 Millions of children and young people from around the world have been striking from school on Fridays to highlight political inaction on the climate crisis. The Youth Climate Strikers called on adults everywhere to get behind them on the 20th September and demand urgent climate action.

Medact has been working with healthcare workers across the UK to show health sector support for the youth climate strikes. On the 20th September, groups of healthcare workers took to the streets to participate in student-organized demonstrations in London, Glasgow, Oxford, Leeds, York, Birmingham, and Bristol. Workplace-based actions, to show support for the students’ demands, were also organised by healthcare workers who could not leave their patients to join the demonstrations.

27.09.2019 Reuters recently reported that nuclear energy is both too slow and too expensive to present a meaningful response to the climate catastrophe facing our planet. So why are countries like the UK, France, Russia or China still investing in it? The answer lies in the demands of the military, who require a robust backbone of civil nuclear infrastructure for their nuclear weapons programs. This backbone includes the mining, refinement, transportation, enrichment and safeguarding of uranium, as well as research and development and a large number of nuclear engineers and scientists. Hence the investments in civil nuclear energy. Frank Boulton (MedAct), Angelika Claussen (IPPNW Europe) and Dr. Alex Rosen (IPPNW Germany) just published an informative publication on this subject.

20.08.2019 International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) is calling on the Indian government to restore immediately all communications and freedom of movement in Kashmir and Jammu, and urging all states in the disputed border regions to initiate new diplomatic talks aimed at reducing tensions and negotiating a peaceful settlement to the long-standing conflict.

15.08.2019 The main news from our access to healthcare campaign was the launch of our new online e-action, which allows you to write to the Department of Health and Social Care to tell them that you won’t stand by while they force the NHS to deny care to people who can’t pay.

In July, Medact was also featured in an investigation by the BBC that uncovered shocking examples of the way NHS charging is harming patients and embedding discrimination into the NHS. The show also featured an interview with an Overseas Visitor Manager – whose job it is to find and charge patients – in which they revealed how they would simply scan hospital lists and pick out people with “foreign sounding names”.

15.08.2019 Our Fossil Free Health campaign had another big win in July: the Royal College of Emergency Medicine divested from fossil fuels! Huge congratulations to all of the Medact members and friends - Zoe, Michael, James, Tim, Sandy and Izzy - whose amazing work helped make this happen.

We are now writing to the Royal College of Midwives to encourage them to make the same bold step: please sign and share our letter with any midwives you know!

Medact is also partnering in the upcoming Fossil Free UK weekend training and networking event for fossil fuel divestment activists. This will include a number of health-specific divestment sessions and we’re hoping that our Fossil Free Health campaign will be well represented.Final date is TBC, but will be either 18-20th or 25-27th October.

08.08.2019 On the 6 August 2019, Bolivia submitted its ratification of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) to the United Nations, making it the 25th nation to ratify the treaty. Ambassador Sacha Llorentty Solíz (fourth from right) gave a moving speech in support of the total elimination of nuclear weapons. The TPNW has now reached the halfway point of its Entry into Force, as 50 states parties are needed for it to become International Law. This milestone was especially significant as Bolivia chose Hiroshima Day for its announcement, commemorating the 74th anniversary of the day the United States detonated a nuclear bomb over the City of Hiroshima in 1945. As we remember the hundreds of thousands of lives lost, we also look forward with hope that the TPNW will help us keep the promise of "never again". Congratulations to Bolivia for bringing us one step closer to our goal of banning and eliminating nuclear weapons.

05.08.2019 “Such a withdrawal would turn back the clock to a dangerous era”:
Physicians for Social Responsibility firmly opposes President Donald Trump’s dangerous decision to withdraw from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. This vital landmark treaty entered into force during the Cold War, at the height of elevated tensions between the United States and Russia. It remains responsible for eliminating over 2,600 intermediate-range missiles, bringing tangible progress in stabilization and disarmament efforts between the two countries. Withdrawing from the INF Treaty would make Americans less safe and increase the risk of nuclear conflict between the United States and Russia.

01.08.2019 The next IPPNW World Congress will be held in Mombasa, Kenya, from May 25-29, 2020.

"Disarmament, Development and Health" is a joint event of IPPNW and the Association of Physicians and Medical Workers for Social Responsibility (APMS), the Kenyan affiliate. Delegates from around the world will gather on Kenya's South Coast to discuss disarmament and development as a prerequisite for social justice, good health, and ecological sustainability in Africa and the world at large. Information about the program, accommodations, and registration will be updated regularly on the Congress website.

31.07.2019 On June 6th, we at Pressenza premiered our latest documentary film, “The Beginning of the End of Nuclear Weapons”.  For this film, we interviewed 14 people, experts in their fields, who were able to provide insight into the history of the subject, the process which led to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, and current efforts to stigmatise them and turn the ban into elimination.  As part of our commitment to make this information available to the whole world, we are publishing the full versions of those interviews, together with their transcripts, in the hope that this information will be useful for future documentary film makers, activists and historians who would like to hear the powerful testimonies recorded in our interviews.

This interview is with Dr. Ira Helfand, from International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, at his home in Massachusetts, on the 24th of September, 2018.

23.07.2019 Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) is mobilizing thousands of doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals to raise the alarm about the mistreatment of people seeking asylum in the United States, and to use evidence to challenge cruel U.S. policies. Yesterday, PHR Asylum Network member and child psychiatrist Dr. Amy Cohen testified before a U.S. Senate committee hearing on the treatment of children at the U.S. southern border. In her powerful remarks to Congress, she asked: “Can we not agree that children running for their lives deserve our care and a chance to heal and grow? That these policies demean us all and reduce our standing in the world? Surely as doctors and legislators, as human beings, we must be able to come together on this.”

17.07.2019 PHR welcomes a Turkish court’s recent acquittal of Dr. Şebnem Korur Fincancı, a prominent human rights defender, anti-torture advocate, and PHR partner and 2017 gala honoree. Dr. Fincancı, president of the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey, was cleared of 2016 charges of disseminating “terrorist propaganda” after she guest edited a Kurdish newspaper critical of the Turkish government – but she continues to face a separate prison sentence for signing a peace petition that year. PHR Executive Director Donna McKay said: “While Dr. Fincancı’s acquittal is welcome news, she and many other physicians remain under threat of conviction and imprisonment simply for exercising their right to freedom of expression.” PHR calls on the Turkish government to respect freedom of speech and cease the persecution of medical professionals.

26.06.2019 Medical neglect. Inconsistent medical records. Disregard of doctors’ recommendations. These are just some of the disturbing conditions that have become the norm at Guantánamo Bay detention center, where new investigations conducted by PHR and the Center for Victims of Torture have revealed systemic and longstanding deficiencies in care for detainees. The suffering endured by detainees directly contradicts U.S. officials’ claims that detainees are receiving adequate care and provides further evidence that Guantánamo should be closed immediately.

21.05.2019 Washington, D.C. —  In light of recent statements by National Security Advisor John Bolton and others in the Trump administration and military regarding potential escalation of a conflict with Iran, Physicians for Social Responsibility issued the following comment:

As an organization of medical and health professionals and advocates who mobilize on the greatest threats to human health and survival, Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) unequivocally opposes any attempt to escalate conflict or engage in war with Iran. The United States and Iran both have a vested interest in avoiding war. Declaring war is the purview of Congress, and PSR urges all Members of Congress to exercise their solemn duty to protect our nation’s interests and prevent war with Iran.

13.05.2019 Patients Not Passports – challenging healthcare charging in the NHS is a new Medact briefing paper examining NHS charging and the introduction of immigration controls in the NHS. It is designed to be a tool used to support people in campaigning against the Hostile Environment. It sets out the policy and ideological background to NHS charging; reframes and challenges some of the arguments used to justify the policies; and presents evidence and analysis of the likely impact of restricting access to the NHS. It also includes new data on NHS Trust’s response to the policy and reveals how little has been done to mitigate or monitor the harm it will cause.

more on medact.org

06.05.2019 A profit-driven, extractive economy is severely undermining the life support systems of the planet and exacerbating health inequities around the world. The fossil fuel industry epitomises the worst of what drives this system, and is responsible for impacting the health of hundreds of millions of people, through the climate change that it is driving. Those worst affected are people of colour in the global South. Meanwhile the profits of the fossil fuel industry are concentrated in the global North.

09.03.2019 In a new commentary just published in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet, IPPNW co-president Arun Mitra, Dr. Zulfiqar A Bhutta of Pakistan, and Lancet editor Richard Horton warn that the escalation of hostilities between India and Pakistan is “a matter of urgent public health concern” and call on both countries to pursue “diplomacy, dialogue, and the promotion of person to person contact and engagement between civil society representatives and youth.”

08.03.2019 As tensions continue to rise in Kashmir after the Pulwama terror attack of February 2019 where over forty military personnel lost their lives, fear has, once again, gripped the Valley of Kashmir. Over four hundred separatists are claimed to have been arrested and local political organisations have been  banned by the Indian central government.

11.03.2019 Eight years after the world’s most complex nuclear disaster, the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plants and spent fuel ponds are still leaking and dangerous, vast amounts of contaminated water continue to accumulate, 8000 odd clean-up workers labour daily and will need to for many decades, the needs of people exposed to radioactivity are still neglected, no one is in prison for a disaster fundamentally caused by the negligence of the operator and the government, and most of the lessons of Fukushima have yet to heeded.

27.02.2019 IPPNW calls on India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan to take immediate steps to deescalate the tensions in the disputed Kashmir region and to reduce the grave danger of nuclear war.

Recent acts of terror and military incursions in the long-disputed territory have exacerbated a conflict that threatens to plunge these two countries into a fifth and, conceivably, final major war since partition. Both countries have traded threats of nuclear retaliation. This is how nuclear war begins.

27.02.2019 Last week medact.org released their report co-written with ForcesWatch, Selling the Military: A critical analysis of contemporary recruitment marketing in the UK. In the report and at the launch event they explored the way in which the military develops its marketing in order to target young people, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, and the implications this has on health and social inequality. You can read the report here.

Dr. Guddi Singh - Medact member and paediatrician - and Reem Abu-Hayyeh our Peace & Security Campaigner published an editorial in the BMJ Paediatrics Open on the ‘Adverse health effects of recruiting child soldiers’. You can read the editorial, see coverage of it in the Guardian and listen to an interview with Guddi on BBC Radio 4 (from 45.50min).

11.02.2019 The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) have launched a new global video campaign about the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of a nuclear war. The goal is to encourage people to urge their governments to sign and ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Among the materials is a new video designed to engage “millennials” with the issue.

06.12.2018 Good news just reached us from ICAN Spain: the left-wing political party Podemos got a commitment from the Spanish government to sign the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). However, the government has not yet announced how and when they will implement this decision. This was a result of lobbying by ICAN, IPPNW’s Spanish representative Aurora Bilbao and Carlos Umana from IPPNW Costa Rica. At a round-table on “Achieving a world without nuclear weapons,” Aurora gave a powerful presentation on the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons. Spain’s signature would represent a significant breakthrough for the TPNW among NATO states.

24.10.2018 Donald Trump announced on Saturday that the United States will withdraw from the 1987 Treaty on Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF), a decision confirmed by national security adviser John Bolton earlier this week. The following is a statement issued today by IPPNW’s executive committee.

10.10.2018 Nuclear weapons are weapons of mass extermination. In light of the terrible humanitarian and environmental effects that such weapons have, doctors and scientist have always warned the global society that such weapons must never be used again, and should be abolished. This weekend (October 5-6), I had the privilege to represent IPPNW at the general assembly of the World Medical Association in Reykjavik, Iceland. The WMA is a federation of 114 national medical associations from all over the world.

22.09.2018 On 22nd September Medact members tok part in the ‘Nae Nukes Anywhere’ peace rally at the Faslane Nuclear Base – home to the UK’s Trident submarines. Our Medact contingent joined hundreds of protestors on the stretch from the Peace Camp to the North Gate, and inspiring speakers included Makar Jackie Kay (Scottish poet laureate) and fellow poet, US ICAN co-ordinator and longtime friend of Medact Timmon Wallis. Medact members brought the health voice with our banners, placards and by handing out “prescriptions for nuclear disarmament” to interested members of the public.

07.09.2018 IPPNW and IFMSA have enjoyed informal working relationships for years, and over the next month, I worked with the team at the IFMSA to create a session dubbed “Youth-led Nuclear Disarmament.” The session was going to explore how youth and students can speak against nukes as we all push governments to sign the TPNW. This opportunity reminded me of how our IPPNW founding fathers must have felt when they first united to speak against these nukes. I imagine they found seemingly insurmountable hurdles, but, like us, did not give up.

17.07.2018 On 8 July 2018 Dr. Taipale delivered this address to President Trump and Putin from the balcony of the Old Student House in Helsinki, Finland: "You have awakened humanity from years of deep hibernation. And let’s not forget the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un. Together you have reminded the peoples of the world about the existence of nuclear weapons. The greatest threat today is not global warming but nuclear weapons and the danger of nuclear war. Your colourful speeches have let the genie out the bottle. The spirit of nuclear disarmament has escaped, and can no longer be shut away. 122 countries have signed the United Nations’ Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Read Full Text 

13.07.2018 The US conducted 105 atmospheric and underwater tests at its Pacific Ocean proving ground from 1946-1962. Massive amounts of radioactive fallout from those tests spread across the Pacific, causing severe health effects that have continued to this day.

One of the best-known incidents from this reckless and shameful history was the fate of the Japanese fishing boat the Lucky Dragon. Despite being 90 miles away from ground zero, all 23 crew members were covered in thick layers of fallout from the March 1, 1954 Castle Bravo explosion, which, at 15 megatons, was the largest US nuclear test. The entire crew suffered from acute radiation sickness and were hospitalized for months. One crew member died from his injuries.

18.06.2018 The national affiliates of IPPNW in France, Germany, and the UK, and IPPNW’s international leadership, have appealed to officials in the three governments to stand by the agreement that they made with Iran on their nuclear program. In a letter to President Macron, Chancellor Merkel, and Prime Minister May, reprinted here, IPPNW has urged the leaders to continue working closely with Iran’s government to ensure the obligations of the agreement continue to be met by all remaining parties to it.(June 18, 2018)

10.05.2018 There is general concern about the impulsive behaviour of the current President of the USA and this article addresses ways of de-escalating the danger of a nuclear exchange.

The 12 kiloton bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945 caused total obliteration over a distance of 3.2 km, and fires across 11km2. Some 70-80 thousand people or 30% of the population of Hiroshima died either immediately or over the next few weeks of blast, firestorms or radiation.

08.05.2018 IPPNW condemns the withdrawal of the United States from the international nuclear weapons agreement with Iran, announced today by Donald Trump.
The decision by the US President to ignore key advisers and allies and to pull out of the nuclear agreement with Iran immediately increases the chances of new and intensified conflict in the Middle East and could provoke Iran into resuming its nuclear weapons program.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has certified Iran’s compliance since 2015, when the agreement to halt all activities that could lead to development of nuclear weapons was reached with the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, France, and China, Germany, and the European Union.

30.04.2018 The International Committee of the Red Cross and the World Medical Association have issued important and very timely calls for states to join and implement the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. On April 23, ICRC president Peter Maurer, reiterating the ICRC’s long-standing appeal “to all States, global leaders and citizens to act on the increasing risk of the use of nuclear weapons,” said that “States should take the necessary steps to adhere to the 1972 NPT, the 1996 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and other nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation treaties to which they are not yet party and fully implement their provisions.”

07.03.2018 ICAN partner organization PAX has published a new edition of the landmark report detailing global investments in companies that produce nuclear weapons. The 2018 update of Don’t Bank on the Bomb shows that 329 financial institutions from around the world have invested US $525 billion into 20 companies involved in the production, maintenance and modernization of nuclear weapons in France, India, the United Kingdom, and the United States since January 2014. Fourteen country profiles provide details about nuclear-weapons-related work of identified producers and the financial institutions that support this work. On the positive side, Pax researchers found that the number of institutions that have financial relationships with nuclear weapon producers has decreased since the adoption of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

26.02.2018 IPPNW Board member Dr. Sue Wareham has received the first Chief Minister’s Rotary Peace Prize in Canberra. Attorney-General and Minister for the Arts and Community Events, Gordon Ramsay presided over the award ceremony at the unveiling of the Canberra Rotary Peace Bell in February. Dr. Wareham called on Australia to rethink the policy of building an economy on war profiteering and having a vested interest in wars and instability. “Going to war should not be the thing that Australia is good at and the thing that Australians recognise as central to their identity,” she said.

13.02.2018 The IPPNW Nigeria Radio Project has at its heartbeat “service to humanity”- creating awareness of the threat armed violence poses to health and healthy communities and providing relevant information about public health approaches to preventing armed violence, thus equipping the public with knowledge that can drive peace building in society.

Read the full article on the Peace & Health Blog

18.11.2017 From November 6th to 17th, 2017 the UN Climate Conference was held in Bonn, Germany. During the conference the nuclear industry was intensively lobbying for access to climate funding mechanisms such as the UN Green Climate Fund for its outdated and dangerous nuclear technology. The international campaign “Don’t nuke the climate” forwarded a letter to the German environmental minister Barbara Hendricks which was signed by 70 scientists. In this letter scientists argue that nuclear energy is not the solution to climate change: It is too dirty, too dangerous and also would take too long to be a meaningful answer to global warming.
Moreover, the new nuclear power plant Hinckley Point in the UK is being built – not to solve energy problems, but to hide the costs for the British nuclear weapons program.

Read the scientists' letter

18.11.2017 On November 18, 2017 IPPNW and ICAN and the Berlin peacemovement organized a great action for the ban of nuclear weapons and asked chancellor Merkel to sign the ban treaty. 700 people built a human chain between the US embassy and the North Korean embassy. Two person dressed up as Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un together with their specific nuclear bombs which they moved all the way between the two embassies. In the Middle, in front of the Brandenburger Tor, they had to meet with UN General secretary Antonio Gutérres and chancellor Merkel. Merkel was convinced to sign the weapons ban treaty this way.