An upcoming series about Rosalie Bertell

I had the honour of meeting Rosalie Bertell many years ago — on Frederick Street in Sydney, Nova Scotia when I was helping Elizabeth May and Maude Barlow with some research for their book about the tar ponds, one of the worst toxic waste sites in North America. I later interviewed Bertell for a piece I was writing for The Coast about workers who were exposed to radiation at the Phalen mine in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.

Bertell died in 2012 but her legacy lives on. She was a biometrician, mathematician, expert in the field of radiation, and a peace activist. She led the Bhopal and Chernobyl Medical Commissions, and is probably best known for her work raising awareness about the health hazards from ionizing radiation. She won numerous awards, and was internationally recognized for her work “making the victims” of industrial contamination of all sorts “visible.”

Even so, few people have ever heard of her.

She was born in the US but later moved to Canada and started the International Institute for Concern for Public Health, setting up shop in downtown Toronto. She took on one powerful industry after another, including the medical establishment, and the military-industrial complex.

In the 1990s, Bertell shifted her focus from radiation and nuclear weaponry to what she described as “radically new American war strategies that involve using the planet itself as a weapon,” and in 2001 she published what would be her last book, Planet Earth: The Latest Weapon of War. Bertell had intimate knowledge of the machinations of the US military as she worked for the US Department of Energy in the 1960s where she was involved in reviewing environmental impact statements. She raised awareness about the testing of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere and how it was depleting the earth’s protective ozone layer, which she said had the potential to not only disrupt natural patterns but “wipe out the food web and make life impossible.”

It’s all very controversial subject matter and I’d like to explore some of it in the series.

I hope to have the first part in the series posted in the next week or so, and will publish the rest as they are written.

As ever, I’m very grateful for your readership, and support, and if you’re able, please consider taking out a paid subscription.

Rosalie Bertell, April 4, 1929 - June 14, 2012