This petition refers to the agreement between WHO and the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that ties the hands of WHO
with regard to research and policy with regard to radiation exposure.

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Appeal by health professionals for independence of the
World Health Organization

Initiators:

- Fran Baum, Prof. Dept of Public Health, Flinders Univ. Co-Dir.
People’s Health Movement (Australia)
- Susanna Beretta-Piccoli, Pharmacist, Federal Diploma, Federation of 
Swiss Pharmacist (Switzerland)
- Rosalie Bertell, Ph.D, Epidemiologist, Past Pres. Int. Instit.
Concern for Public Health, Regent Int. Physicians for
 Humanitarian Medecine Geneva, International Science Oversight
Committee, Ass. of Organic Consumers (USA)
- Elena.B. Bourlakova, MD. Prof. Semenov Inst. of Clinical Physics,
Acad. of  Sciences, Moscow. (Russian Fed.)
- Christelle Braconnot, Nurse, French Diploma (France)
- Marina Carobbio, MD. Member of Parliament (Switzerland)
- Blanche Dubois, Nurse, French Diploma (France)
- Lena-Marie Glaubitz, Medical Student (Germany)
- Liliane Maury Pasquier, Midwife, Senator (Switzerland)
- Maria Roth-Bernasconi, Nurse, Member of Parliament (Switzerland)
- Youri.I. Bandajevsky, MD. Prof, ex-Rector, Faculty of Medicine,
Gomel (Belarus)
- Abraham Behar, MD, Pres. As.Française Médecins Prévention Guerre
Nucléaire, Past Pres. IPPNW Europe (France)
- Chris Busby, Epidemiologist, Scientific Secretary, European
Committee on Radiation Risk, (United Kingdom)
- Denis Fauconnier,  MD. General Practitioner, Corsica (France)
- Michel Fernex, MD, Prof. Emeritus, Faculty of Medicine, Basel, Pres.
Enfants Tchernobyl Bélarus (France)
- Pierre Flor-Henry, MD, Prof, Dir. Psychiatric Services for Adults,
Hospital of Alberta (Canada)
- Claudio Knüesli,  MD, Oncologist, Pres. PSR/ IPPNW Switzerland
(Switzerland)
- Andreas Nidecker, MD., Prof. Radiology, Faculty of Medicine, Basel
(Switzerland)
- Claudio Schuftan, MD. Int. Public Health Consultant for WHO, UNICEF,
EC. Co-Dir, PHM (Vietnam)
- Hani Serag,MD, Public Health Researcher, International Coordinator,
People’s Health Movement (Egypt)
- Joël Spiroux, MD, Environmental Health Expert, Union Rég. médecins
libéraux, Hte Normandie (France)

--------------------- form to sign and mail --------------------------
To   Madam Chan, Director-General, WHO
     and ____________________
Minister of Health of ___________________   (country).

The World Health Organization (WHO) works towards the resolution of
public health problems and to this end, it is mandated “to assist in
developing an informed public opinion” (WHO Constitution, 7 April
1948). However, since the WHO/IAEA Agreement (WHA12-40) was signed on
28 May 1959, the WHO appears to be subordinate to the International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). As health professionals, we support the
request that WHO, in line with its constitution, recover its
independence in the area of ionising radiation.

In the past, WHO was paralysed in its struggle against passive smoking
because it was infiltrated by the tobacco lobby. In the same way, WHO
is paralysed by the nuclear lobby, incomparably more powerful,
represented by the IAEA, at the top of the UN hierarchy. This agency
reports to the UN Security Council where it coordinates the promotion
of commercial nuclear energy. The other UN agencies and the WHO report
only to the UN Economic and Social Council.

The principal statutory objective of the IAEA is “to accelerate and
enlarge the contribution of atomic energy to peace, health and
prosperity throughout the world”. The WHO/IAEA Agreement stipulates
that “Whenever either organization proposes to initiate a programme
or activity on a subject in which the other organization has or may
have a substantial interest, the first party shall consult the other
with a view to adjusting the matter by mutual agreement”. The
Agreement also provides (Article III) for the application of “certain
limitations for the safeguarding of confidential information”. This
confidentiality led to the non-publication of proceedings of the WHO
Conference on Chernobyl, 23-27 November 1995. The 700 participants
still await the Proceedings which were promised for March 1996. Dr
Nakajima, who was Director General, WHO, at the time of the
conference, confirmed in 2001, in an interview with Swiss Italian
Television, that censorship of these proceedings was due to the
legally defined relations between the WHO and the IAEA.

For research projects, “adjusting the matter by mutual agreement”
implies removing all freedom from WHO in the area of nuclear
accidents. The annex to the programme of the 1995 Conference in
Geneva sets out the chronology of events of the Chernobyl accident,
and confirms that WHO’s involvement was too late. The last two points
of the annex are noteworthy.

“Beginning of 1990: WHO was invited by the Minister of Health of the
Soviet Union to set up an international aid project.
May 1991. Completion of the International Project by the IAEA.”

Thus, it was the IAEA which provided the plans for a project requested
by the Minister of Health of the USSR. This explains why genetic
damage, known to be a critical measure since the 1957 publication of
a WHO “Technical Report on the Genetic Effects of Radiation on
Humans”, was omitted, while dental caries were accorded high
priority.

As a result, it is the promoters of atomic energy, the IAEA and its
spokesman, the UNSCEAR, which depend for their recommendations on the
self designated officials of the ICRP[1] <#_ftn1> ,which provide
information to the United Nations on the health problems of
Chernobyl. They cited 32 deaths from radiation in 1996. In 2005, they
conceded 54 deaths and 4000 thyroid cancers in children - a fact which
the IAEA could no longer contest, as it had done until 1995.

It is urgent for WHO to provide assistance to one million children,
condemned to live in environments contaminated by radionuclides from
Chernobyl. Up to 90% of the contamination is internal; and the rest
external. Some internal organs accumulate huge concentrations of
radionuclides. The resulting chronic contamination has very serious
effects on health. In Belarus today, 85% of the children in
contaminated areas are ill; before the explosion, this figure was
15%.2 <#_ftn2> The Chief Medical Officer of the Russian Federation
noted in 2001 that 10% of 184,000 liquidators had died and one third
was invalid. The Ukraine provided 260,000 liquidators. According to a
press release from the Ukrainian Embassy in Paris, dated 25 April
2005, 94.2% of them were ill in 2004. At the Kiev conference in 2001,
we learned that 10% of these workers, half of whom were young military
recruits had died, one third was invalid and the situation was
deteriorating rapidly. The Ukrainian Embassy stated that 87.85% of
the inhabitants of the contaminated territory were ill and that
proportion increases every year.

Hundreds of epidemiological studies in Ukraine, Belarus and the
Russian Federation, have established that there has been a
significant rise in all types of cancer causing thousands of deaths,
an increase in infant and perinatal mortality, a large number of
spontaneous abortions, a growing number of deformities and genetic
anomalies, disturbance and retardation of mental development,
neuropsychological illness, blindness, and diseases of the
respiratory, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, urogenital and
endocrine systems.

The health professionals, undersigned, join with the associations
which have denounced this unacceptable situation for more than ten
years now. We support those who have held a silent vigil in front of
the WHO since April 26, 2007. With them, we demand revision of the
Agreement (WHA 12-40) in order to restore independence to WHO in
accordance with its constitution.

We request that revision of the agreement be put on the agenda of the
next World Health Assembly so that WHO can “act as the directing and
coordinating authority on international health work”, “promote and
conduct research”, and “provide information, counsel and assistance
in the field of health” [Articles 2 a, n and q of the WHO
Constitution] in the area of ionising radiation and the health
consequences of Chernobyl, and in particular the health effects of
chronic, low dose radiation from prolonged ingestion of artificial
radionuclides.


_____________________
Name, First name:
Profession:
Address:

Signature

Please send your signed letter to the following address: Independence
for WHO - Philippe de Rougemont, 71 rue Liotard, 1203 Geneva,
Switzerland.

If time pressures are too great, health professionals may sign on line
at the following website :

http://independentwho.info/spip.php?article118

But if possible, we recommend paper and postmail for a stronger
statement.

More general informations: www.independentwho.info
<http://www.independentwho.info/>

[1] <#_ftnref1> ICRP International Commission on RadioProtection

2 <#_ftnref2> Figures provided by the Minister of Health and the
Academy of Sciences of Belarus during the parliamentary hearings in
April 2000.
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