Spring /Summer 1981

Yale and New Haven Area Health Professionals Appeal for the Prevention of Nuclear War

“In a full page advertisement in local newspapers, almost 500 Yale-New Haven Medical Center and New Haven area health professionals issued a ‘warning from health professionals for the prevention of nuclear war. ’ The ad urged readers to join its authors in appealing to President Reagan and Chairman Brezhnev to defuse the current tensions between our countries; to ban the use of all nuclear weapons; and to recognize the threat posed by the very existence of our enormous nuclear arsenals. …

In a letter to his colleagues, urging them to support the appeal, Dean Robert W. Berliner wrote, ‘Although nuclear war has been a possibility for three decades, recent world events have made that possibility even more likely. We who concern ourselves with human health have a unique stature and responsibility in our society. As physicians and health professionals, therefore, we have an important opportunity to emphasize to our fellow citizens the magnitude and immediacy of this very grave public health danger.’ …”