Caldicott Discusses Nuclear Weapons and Human Health

World-renowned physician, author, and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Helen Caldicott spoke at the College on "The Medical Consequences of the Use of Depleted Uranium." Her fall semester visit was sponsored by Students for a Just Peace and an anonymous donor.

Caldicott was an instructor in pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and on the staff of the Children's Hospital Medical Center in Boston in 1977 when she founded Physicians for Social Responsibility. Its membership now includes 23,000 doctors committed to educating their colleagues about the dangers of nuclear power, nuclear weapons, and nuclear war. Caldicott also started Women's Action for New Directions, which is becoming increasingly instrumental in electing female politicians with progressive platforms. Last summer Caldicott established the Nuclear Policy Research Institute, "to produce . . . education campaigns in major U.S. media about the often underestimated dangers of nuclear weapons and power programs and policies."

Caldicott was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985, and the umbrella group she helped formulate, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, was awarded the prize that year.