Article: 971 of sgi.talk.ratical From: (dave "who can do? ratmandu!" ratcliffe) Subject: Testimony of R. Bertell--World Women's Congress, 11/91 Intro & PART I Summary: description of the magnitude of planetary nuclear pollution Keywords: secrecy, extreme behaviour, rationalization, lies, self-destructive Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc. Date: Mon, 1 Feb 1993 16:04:11 GMT Lines: 587 BACKGROUND AND PART I INTRODUCTION CLAIM: With this background, I would claim before this tribunal that: 1. War and preparation for war are addictive anti-social behaviours which are destroying the environment, human culture and life, and ultimately the earth's life-giving, sustaining capability. 2. The ravages of preparation for war have been hidden by governments, especially by the United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, France and China, and most victims of this war-making pollution have been allowed to suffer and die without either assistance or compensation. 3. The burden of suffering from the deaths and disabilities caused by military activities and pollution falls disproportionately on women and children, although they have little or no power to make decisions about, participate in or profit from any of the activities involved. [ . . . ] ADDICTION MODEL: The classical marks of a social addiction are all present in the nuclear military scenario: secrecy, extreme behaviour, rationalization, lies and self-destructive actions. The nuclearization process has involved a colossal brain-drain from civilian needs and has usurped the lion's share of financial and resource reserves of nations. In fact, it has no doubt bankrupted both countries in the lethal race: the U.S.S.R. and the U.S., although not all of the facts are out as yet (Aug. '91), especially U.S. bank collapses. The most recent addictive binges of militarism are the Gulf War, the invasion of Panama and the invasion of Grenada on the part of the U.S.; the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq and the Soviet threat to the republics. I separate these experiences from provocative wars of self- defense or liberation, caused by the failure of the addicted nations to allow for proper international dispute settlement mechanisms. * * * * * * * Follows are sections of Dr. Rosalie Bertell's Testimony prepared for the World Women's Congress for a Healthy Planet held in Miami, Florida, November 8-12, 1991. There was more I would have liked to have scanned in on-line, however the multi-generation quality of the xeroxed copy presented rather daunting time factor considerations for correcting the errors that would be included. As a compromise, I chose to prepare the opening sections of parts I, II and III, with one additional accompanying document from each, as well as the complete portions of Part IV ("Summary Estimate of the Number of Radiation Victims Globally 1945 to 1988") and Part V ("A Report Card for Measuring Your Nations Progress Toward Sanity"). For information about all of this, please contact the International Institute of Concern for Public Health in Toronto, Ontario. ___________________________________________________________________________ INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF CONCERN FOR PUBLIC HEALTH 710-264 Queens Quay West Toronto ON M5J 1B5 Canada Tel: +1-416-260-0575 Fax: +1-416-260-3404 E-mail: IICPH@compuserve.com TESTIMONY OF ROSALIE BERTELL, Ph.D., GNSH, PREPARED FOR THE WORLD WOMEN'S CONGRESS FOR A HEALTHY PLANET 8-12 NOVEMBER 1991, MIAMI, FLORIDA, U.S.A. Charitable Registration No. 0715045-59-13 * M.C.I. No. 416/336-1762 ___________________________________________________________________________ ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT BACKGROUND: Until recently the environment, i.e. the air, water and land which supports life, was taken for granted. A massive onslaught against the environment began with the carpet-bombing in World War II. It reached incredible ferocity in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the victims of which still suffer and die. This was immediately followed by nuclear weapon testing and the corresponding development of an entire uranium and nuclear support industry, with highly toxic waste. The nuclear tests have polluted the entire northern and southern hemispheres. In the post-World War II period, with the Korean War followed by the Cold War, there was a surge in research into atomic, biological and chemical warfare. These weapons were designed to destroy food, drinking water, jungle foliage and air. Their use in Vietnam created virtual death traps for animals and humans. This research and development period saw between 70,000 and 100,000 new toxic chemicals introduced into the air, water and land globally. The space age has brought new environmental horrors. Atmospheric testing of nuclear bombs including the so-called "rainbow tests" set off in the upper atmosphere, created artificial aurora borealis and rained nuclear pollution on the far north near the magnetic pole. It is difficult now, looking back over the last 50 years, to determine the real causes of such calamities as the forest die-back, desertification, ozone holes and the greenhouse effect. No doubt, what is now identified as a "cause" is often the last straw in a long chain of abuse of the earth. The earth sickness has spawned human sickness evident in growing numbers of cancers and victims of AIDS, toxic shock syndrome, Epstein-Barr virus and various other new threats to survival, as well as the resurgence of cholera, tuberculosis, malaria, congenital diseases and disabilities. The most recent assault on the earth and its people was called the Gulf War. This was by far the most sophisticated attack against air, water and food yet accomplished by the warriors. They managed to be "finished" and at home marching in victory parades as the Iraqi people died at the rate of 1,000 a day due to disrupted food and water supply, destroyed hospitals and medical care facilities, starvation, lack of sewage and garbage disposal and direct pollution from oil well fires, bombed chemical plants and destroyed nuclear reactors and nuclear waste storage facilities. CLAIM: With this background, I would claim before this tribunal that: 1. War and preparation for war are addictive anti-social behaviours which are destroying the environment, human culture and life, and ultimately the earth's life-giving, sustaining capability. 2. The ravages of preparation for war have been hidden by governments, especially by the United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, France and China, and most victims of this war-making pollution have been allowed to suffer and die without either assistance or compensation. 3. The burden of suffering from the deaths and disabilities caused by military activities and pollution falls disproportionately on women and children, although they have little or no power to make decisions about, participate in or profit from any of the activities involved. TESTIMONY: Proper documentation of these claims in a legal sense is not possible without additional time, personnel, legal and financial support. However, the broad brush facts are now admitted even by the perpetrating governments and an overwhelming number of public documents can be cited as corroborating evidence. This testimony will briefly deal with each of the three claims, and provide some summary documentation and references in support of each. Focus will be on the uranium/nuclear pollution because the continued secrecy in this area is allowing governments to promote the use of this technology for nuclear generation of electricity and food irradiation in developing countries. I hope this testimony will form the basis of a case put before the U. N. Human Rights Tribunal and the World Health Organization for action. It should form the basis of a global public inquiry and eventually Nuremberg type trials. ___________________________________________________________________________ PART I WAR AND PREPARATION FOR WAR ARE ADDICTIVE ANTI- SOCIAL BEHAVIOURS WHICH ARE DESTROYING THE ENVIRONMENT, HUMAN CULTURE AND LIFE, AND ULTIMATELY THE EARTH'S LIFE-GIVING, SUSTAINING CAPABILITY. ___________________________________________________________________________ NUCLEAR POLLUTION IS BOTH GLOBAL AND MASSIVE: Since 16 July 1945 when a plutonium device was exploded at Alamagordo, New Mexico, U.S.A., about 1,900 nuclear bombs have been exploded (in the atmosphere and under ground). The explosive force of these tests totals about 40,000 times the force of the Hiroshima bomb, which was itself 1,000 times the force of a World War II block-buster. Each of the current 10 megaton nuclear bombs represents an escalation factor of 106 (one million) over the block-buster used in World War II. Responsibility for development of this massive destructive force rests with seven governments (1945-1989): U.S. 942 tests (including 20 joint U.S.-U.K. tests, 5 underwater, 6 rocket and 3 space tests). U.S.S.R. 713 tests Britain 41 tests (including 20 joint U.S.-U.K.tests) France 181 tests China 34 tests India 1 test South Africa 1 or 2 tests (?) About 518 nuclear tests were set off in the atmosphere: air bursts, underwater, or space, resulting in pervasive global pollution affecting the health and reproductive ability of all living things, including humans. Underground testing has given rise to many serious radionuclide ventings to the air with the same fallout problems as atmospheric tests. Even when totally contained, they leave behind dangerous long lived radioactive particles in a rocky soil environment whose ability to contain them has been shattered by their own nuclear explosive force. Most of the long lived contaminants are expected to reach the ground water and biosphere in a relatively short time. The nuclear weapon industry has been supported by massive uranium mining, milling and processing industries in Australia, the U.S., U.S.S.R., Canada, Namibia, Zaire (Belgian Congo), Eastern Europe, Argentina and elsewhere. According to an estimate made in the Canadian House of Parliament (23 January 1984, House Debate Vol. 127 No. 17, 2nd Session of the 32nd Canadian Parliament), the global total of radioactive uranium mill waste is about 6 billion tons. The half-life of important radionuclides concentrated in this waste range up to 250,000 years. Most of the waste is uncontained: releasing radon gas and particulates to air and seeping into surface and ground water. The nuclear industry also requires uranium enrichment facilities, reactors, nuclear reprocessing plants, weapon factories, transportation and toxic waste management. Even if one posits a totally "peaceful nuclear program" sharing some of the responsibility for pollution, such a program willingly or unwillingly provides an excuse for civilian cooperation with military strategy. The military needs this civilian front. THE AMOUNT OF NUCLEAR POLLUTION RELEASED TO AIR, WATER AND LAND: According to the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR 1982), the release of nuclear fission products from weapon testing has been more concentrated in certain years and certain geographical areas. The build up of radioactivity due to the nuclear industry support system and commercial activities has been more broadly pervasive and slowly cumulative in nature. The most outstanding years and locations for nuclear fallout from weapon testing include: (megaton yield includes fission and fusion products) 1952 U.S. 12.6 megatons 1954 U.S. 47.1 megatons 1956 U.S. 22.7 megatons 1957 U.S.S.R. 11.3 megatons U.K. 9.25 megatons 1958 U.S. 17.6 megatons U.S.S.R. 35.2 megatons U.K. 7.24 megatons 1961 U.S.S.R. 122.3 megatons 1962 U.S.S.R. 180.3 megatons U.S. 37.1 megatons Between 1945 and 1962 the U.S. released about 138.6 megatons of nuclear fission and fusion products into the earth's biosphere with heavy "local" fallout in the Marshall Islands and downwind of the Nevada Test Site. In the Soviet Union most atmospheric testing occurred in 1958, 1961 and 1962: 1949-57 ( 2.4%) 8.36 megatons 1958 (10.2%) 35.2 megatons 1961 (35.3%) 122.3 megatons 1962 (52.1%) 180.3 megatons ______ 346.16 megatons The U.K. atmospheric testing in Australia released 16.7 megatons nuclear fission and fusion products in 1952-53. France released 11.9 megatons nuclear fission and fusion products in the atmosphere of Algiers and French Polynesia between 1960 and 1974. China released 20.7 megatons nuclear fission and fusion products into the atmosphere between 1964 and 1980. Of the total 550 megaton yield, it is estimated that 266 megatons was from fission. This included: 27 million curies strontium 90 43 million curies cesium 137 9.6 million curies of carbon 14 255 thousand curies of plutonium 239 The carbon 14 and plutonium 239 amounts will be unchanged for thousands of years. The strontium 90 has now decayed to about 11 to 13 million curies, and cesium 137 to about 17-21 million curies. Due to underground testing there is today an additional (allowing for decay): 5.3 million curies of strontium 90 8.4 million curies of cesium 137 0.2 million curies of plutonium 239 These dangerous substances are usually measured in pico Curies: one pico Curie is one millionth part of one millionth part of a curie. For comparison, it was estimated that the Three Mile Island accident in 1979 released 30 curies of mixed fission products; the 1957 Windscale accident in Britain released 30,000 curies; and the 1986 Chernobyl accident in the Ukraine released 3 million curies of cesium 137 along with 47 million curies of other radionuclides. U.S. estimates of background radiation dose were 0.1 rem (1 mSv) per person per year before 1945, about 0.17 rem (1.7 mSv) per person per year in the 1960's, and 0.36 rem per person per year in 1988 (U.S. National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurement Report 92, 1987). DAMAGE TO THE ATMOSPHERE: The United States has conducted nine nuclear tests in space, i.e. several hundred kilometers above the surface of the earth. A 1.4 megaton bomb which exploded 400 kilometers above Johnston Atoll in the Pacific Ocean on 9 July 1962 disrupted both the ionosphere and the Van Allen belts, spreading radioactive pollution to outer space. No other nation has conducted nuclear testing in space. All large nuclear explosions, even if not considered space shots, inject nitrogen oxides into the stratosphere (15 to 50 kilometers above the earth) catalyzing ozone destruction. Nitrogen oxides released at lower levels become acid rain (nitric acid). The overall impact of the nuclear testing on the ozone depletion and acidification of the earth has never been fully calculated. Military supersonic flight and the space program also contribute to the major global problems of the earth's environment. However, military activities have seldom been scrutinized for their impact on the biosphere or human health. ADDICTION MODEL: The classical marks of a social addiction are all present in the nuclear military scenario: secrecy, extreme behaviour, rationalization, lies and self-destructive actions. The nuclearization process has involved a colossal brain-drain from civilian needs and has usurped the lion's share of financial and resource reserves of nations. In fact, it has no doubt bankrupted both countries in the lethal race: the U.S.S.R. and the U.S., although not all of the facts are out as yet (Aug. '91), especially U.S. bank collapses. The most recent addictive binges of militarism are the Gulf War, the invasion of Panama and the invasion of Grenada on the part of the U.S.; the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq and the Soviet threat to the republics. I separate these experiences from provocative wars of self-defense or liberation, caused by the failure of the addicted nations to allow for proper international dispute settlement mechanisms. ___________________________________________________________________________ Documents for Part I 1. Testimony of Shuntaro Hida M.D., Japanese Atomic Bomb victim. 2. Study of current condition of atomic bomb victims in Japan, by Saburo Murata, M.D. - 1985. 3. October 31, 1988 "Time" Magazine article on U.S. nuclear weapon production. 4. Soviet uranium mining pollution in what was East Germany. "Town Poisoned by Uranium," by George Rodrigue, "Toronto Star," August 2, 1991. 5. Soviet nuclear weapon testing. "Soviets admit using troops in '54 test," by David Remnick of the "Washington Post," appearing in the "Buffalo Evening News," September 30, 1989. 6. Testimony of Senator Jeton Anjain to the United Nations on U.S. nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands. 7. Legal Analysis of U.S. nuclear testing in the Pacific - U.S. Library of Congress Research. "Espousal of Claims Under the Compact of Free Association" prepared by Daniel Hill Zafren, Specialist in American Public Law, American Law Division, April 2, 1985. -- "We are able to inform you that ancient grandfathers, the great stands of cedar and redwoods, are in danger of extinction by chainsaws. The maple, chief of trees, is dying from the top down, as was prophesied by Ganiodaiio, Handsome Lake, in 1799. Great rivers and streams are filled with chemicals and filth, and these great veins of life are being used as sewers. "We were told the female is sacred and carries the gift of life as our Mother Earth, the family is the center of our life and that we must build our communities with life and respect for one another. "We were told the Creator loves children the most, and we can tell the state of affairs of the nation by how the children are being treated. "When we return to Onondaga, we will begin our Great Midwinter ceremonies. We will tie the past year in a bundle and give thanks once again for another year on this earth. "This was given to us, and we have despoiled and polluted it. If we are to survive, dear friends and colleagues, we must clean it up now or suffer its consequences. . . . But Lyons also remembered turning to Leon Shenandoah, chief of the Grand Council of the Six Nations Confederacy. "My chief, he doesn't say much, but I asked and he said, `They're not taking it serious enough. I don't think they realize what's going to happen to them. What's coming.' He would have liked to see less posturing. We have our procphecies. We know what is coming down the road.'" -- Onondaga Chief Oren Lyons, on the Global Forum he helped organize on Environment and Development for Survival held in Moscow, January 15 to 19, 1990.