Nuclera Weapons Days of Action

NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release: Contact:
Friday, July 16, 2004 Anne Rabe, Center for Health, Env. & Justice
518-732-4538, annerabe@msn.com



Trinity, Hiroshima & Nagasaki Anniversary Events Held Nationwide.
Communities Call on National Leaders to Take Precautionary Action
& Prevent Nuclear Weapons Hazards;
“Support Safety & Security: Clean Up, Don’t Build Up”

A series of seventy-two events are being held in twenty states across the country to commemorate the 59th anniversaries of the Trinity atomic detonation and the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombing. A diverse coalition of environmental health, nuclear weapons, toxic waste and peace organizations released a Blueprint of Precautionary Actions to prevent nuclear weapon hazards in the U.S.

The July and August Nuclear Weapons Days of Action will kick off with events to commemorate the world’s first atomic detonation at the Trinity site in NM on July 16th. Attached is a national Calendar listing events in CA, CO, GA, ID, MA, MD, ME, MN, NM, NE, NJ, NY, NV, OR, SC, TN, TX, VT, WA, WI and DC. Groups are holding interfaith, remembrance and peace lantern ceremonies, citizens weapons inspections, speak outs, marches and educational events.

The nationwide BE SAFE coalition is sponsoring a National Call-In Day on the August 9th Nagasaki Anniversary to call on President Bush and Presidential candidate John Kerry to support safety and security with a “Clean Up, Don’t Build Up” precautionary policy that halts the escalating nuclear weapons development and production. BE SAFE released a Blueprint for Precautionary Action calling on government and industry to prevent harm with a precautionary approach by: instituting protective cleanups; halting the Bush Administration’s weapons build up, siting of high-level nuclear waste sites and radioactive waste deregulation proposals; and improving security at nuclear weapons plants. Based on the “first do no harm” approach of medicine, the precautionary approach shifts the questions we ask about environmental hazards from “what level of harm is acceptable?” to “how can we prevent harm?” BE SAFE includes the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, Center for Health, Env. & Justice, Global Resource Action Center for the Env., Physicians for Social Responsibility and Military Toxics Project. Attached are the Calendar of Events and Media Statements of national leaders. For Precautionary Action Blueprint & Fact Sheets, visit

http://www.besafenet.com/nuclear.htm.