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Helen Caldicott

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Dr. Helen Caldicott (born 1938) is an Australian physician and anti-nuclear advocate who has founded several associations dedicated to fighting nuclear weapons and nuclear power.

Life

Born in Melbourne, Australia, Caldicott gained a medical degree in 1961 from the University of Adelaide Medical School. In 1977 she joined the staff of the Children's Hospital Medical Center in Boston and was a teacher at the Harvard Medical School in pediatrics from 1977 to 1978. In 1980 she left her medical career in order to concentrate on calling the world's attention to what she perceived as the "insanity" of the world's increasing supply of nuclear weapons and national stockpiles. She made a name for herself, particularly in 1982, when she was featured in the Canadian Oscar-winning documentary If You Love This Planet.

Caldicott claimed that the Hershey Foods Corporation(see article for further discussion of controversy) produced chocolate carrying strontium 90 because of the proximity of the Three Mile Island disaster to Hershey's Philadelphia factory. According to Caldicott strontium 90 that fell on the Pennsylvania grass found its way into the milk of the local dairy cows. Hershey has not responded to this claim. Also in 1982, she founded the Women’s Action for Nuclear Disarmament (WAND) in the United States, which was later renamed Women’s Action for New Directions, a group dedicated to reducing or redirecting military spending towards what it perceives as unmet social issues.

During her time in the United States from 1977 to 1986, Caldicott also got heavily involved with Physicians for Social Responsibility (founded originally in 1961), an organization of 23,000 doctors committed to educating others on nuclear dangers. She also worked abroad to establish similar groups that focused on education about nuclear power, nuclear weapons and nuclear war. One such international group (International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War) was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985.

In 1990 Caldicott decided to contest the seat of Division of Richmond (a traditional National Party of Australia seat in northern New South Wales) in the federal election the time that Charles Blunt was the leader of the conservative National Party of Australia, and represented the division. Caldicott's entry in the race allowed the Labor candidate, Neville Newell, to win the seat despite polling only 27% of the primary vote.

This was an example of the operation of preferential voting in Australia in operation. Caldicott also had a good chance of winning the seat outright - if all of Gibbs' preferences had gone to her as directed, she would drawn ahead of Newell and won on his preferences. In that Division 73,794 were enrolled and 70,571 (95.6%) voted.

In 1995 Caldicott returned to the United States once again where she lectured for the New School of Social Research on the Media, Global Politics, and the Environment. She also hosted a weekly radio show on WBAI (Pacifica) and became the Founding President of the STAR (Standing for Truth About Radiation) Foundation.

Caldicott began researching and writing her book, The New Nuclear Danger: George W. Bush’s Military Industrial Complex which was published in 2001. While touring with that book, she founded the Nuclear Policy Research Institute, headquartered in Washington, DC. NPRI seeks to facilitate a an ongoing public education campaign in the mainstream media about what it perceives as the dangers of nuclear weapons and power programs and policies. It is led by both Caldicott and Executive Director Julie R. Enszer. NPRI has attempted to create a consensusto end the nuclear age by means of public education campaigns, establishing a presence in the mainstream media, and sponsoring high-profile symposia.

In 2003, Caldicott was awarded the Lannan Foundation Prize for Cultural Freedom. She has also been awarded 19 honorary doctoral degrees and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Nobel Laureate Linus Pauling. The Smithsonian Institute has named Caldicott as one of the most influential women of the 20th century. Dr. Caldicott has written numerous articles and has published five books. As of 2005 she splits her time between the United States and Australia and continues to lecture widely to promote her views on nuclear weapons and power.

Books

Quotes

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