 Welcome viewers to our ongoing program, Nuclear Free Future Conversation, coming to you from Channel 17 Center for Media and Democracy here in Burlington, Vermont. And our guest today is a returning guest, Mary Olson, who is on Skype from Aspen, North Carolina. Hello Mary, thank you so much for coming back. Thank you Margaret for inviting me, I'm glad to be here. Yes, and our title that we have decided upon is the Gender and Radiation Impact Project. So Mary, you gave us such enlightenment and insight into the gender matters in the atomic age, which was the first program I had the joy of doing with you, and now I believe that you will expand on those insights. And if you would, take us back a little bit to what you had told us in our first program, Gender Matters in the Atomic Age. And well, the first question is the reference man, the reference man, and what is the problem with him? Well, it really is a historical situation when fission became an activity that human beings do. We have tiny traces of it in some uranium deposits, but industrial scale fission began on a particular day in December of 1942 in Chicago. And since then, human beings have been splitting atoms and creating new radiation and new radioactivity. And so in that context, the people who were creating first nuclear weapons and then nuclear energy with fission were studying radiation, were regulating the exposure to workers, and these workers were almost all military males and paramilitary males. And so the study and the focus was on what became known as reference man, to find weight and to find climate and to find lifestyle. He's defined as white and either North American or Western European. So this is a case that you can look up and see what reference man is. And at the time they did it, it was relevant. And you're saying that all the years of data is from the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are, is based on reference man. No, I'm sorry, there's a confusion here. Yeah, okay. Man is used for, is every single nuclear license in the United States. Our federal agencies use reference man to evaluate every single radiation exposure to project every single radiation risk to define the radiation standards and rules which a nuclear license is supposed to meet in order to protect the public. And I was invoking the history of the Manhattan Project. Reference man was relevant and think about the fact that the federal agencies still use reference man for facilities that are affecting the general public. But also nuclear energy sites, also nuclear medicine, also normal x-rays like dental and medical diagnosis, all of these are licensed by the federal government. So Mary, what is the gender and radiation impact project? Resource service, radiation is far more harmful to female bodies of all age, but particularly when the exposures are to young girls. As much as 10 times more cancer results if a female is exposed when she's between birth and five years old, 10 times more cancer over her lifetime, to these like flying in and to raise interest and a new generation of young people coming up with their PhDs, MDs, public health degrees. And Mary, what is the public health threat now? From radiation. Well, more than male body has acknowledged both to be very possibly mitigation. I have no idea. And Mary, are there individuals who in the workplace who are particularly threatened and who the evidence is there for us to see today? Since I did the 2011 showing this is, it was Dr. Authors Smith and Thorn who published in 2006. I was unaware of this, of very mainstream data in radiation workplaces. Mary, what's that? And is there research now that is giving numbers of the women in threatening jobs like that? On planes, well over 70% female. What is a research catalyst that is in your description of the Gender and Radiation Impact Project? So what is that? And they need students who are coming up in these fields. Radiation Impact Project would be either direct on these young researchers joining already established labs, including these gender questions. And I have leaders who have pledged that they will add these questions if they have additional help. On your website, also there is a promise of better and healthier solutions. What are you talking about there? In a CT exam, if your life is in danger, you need to save lives with some of these imaging. And I'm not saying we don't do that. I'm at CT scan, risk of cancer. Okay, and Mary, how can the Gender and Radiation Impact Project move current research ahead and generate support for independent research? He's studying nuclear workers. He says that ODemales and females, based on the work that I... And Mary, is that independent research then? And that brings to mind about the Department of Energy. Do they presently control most of radiation research? This is wonderful, Mary. This is just very hopeful news. And you are both an activist and an advocate in this and also a keeper and sharer of knowledge. So it's with great pleasure that we are hearing from you today. And are you advocating also for more international research? In any of these questions, search going, I encourage good basic science methods because that's what moves us forward. Agency has senior staff, girls are a subpopulation. Now, at least as much cancer is in a CT scan or deciding just how many plane flights to take with their littlest children. Human being is a life cycle already born, but is the little girl... And I see, Mary, on your website too, the goal of the impact study is to keep our grandchildren from experiencing harm from radiation. That gives us great pause to think of the generational impact. Energy, security, imaging, we have all kinds of options now in ionizing radiation and there's every reason to reduce and eventually phase out. And when you talk too about the intersection of public health, medicine and public policy, you're saying that the gender and radiation impact project is involved in all of those, public health, medicine and public policy. So can you give us some idea of the public policy and how the viewers today can get involved with public policy? So you're saying that the gender and radiation impact is involved in all of those new females of every age group, most harmful to the youngest females, still harmful to males of all ages. So knowing that and going to the gender and radiation impact project website if you need more information, allows you to raise this in every setting. Interacting with your elected officials on any of these issues. Go right ahead and bring this up because it is the attention grabber new treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons. It was nail bodies that made the, maybe we could live without nuclear weapon imaging. We have all kinds of occupations that out being exposed at work and for those who remain exposed at work to these and MVs, part of the function of the project will be to bring them together at Symposia where they can exchange papers and ideas and build a network so that these people become effective leaders in helping to change policy and practice. Mary, this is a very strong advocacy that you're presenting to us and you say it's a five year project and can you tell us what is the immediate short-term goal? $10 million. Oh, okay. And we'll take $10. I mean, at the moment it's an all volunteer activity but I honestly believe that there are industries where there's a lot of money flowing where it would be in their interest to address these matters. We offer C3 so money can come through to research or we can just for the vulnerable is not enough. We need published papers in peer-review journals and I'm excited to say I have one coming but can you tell us a little bit about this paper that's going to come out? Paulette, sir, invited me to do a paper. She is the organizer of something called the Genders and the inequities at every level of society between male and female. She's had me speak at Special Edition on Gender and through you the volume is June 2019 volume. Well, we'll look forward to reading that and for right now for the purposes of our short program which is so full of information and hope for us can you sign off with any kind of message for us? More safely as my final statement. Thank you, Mary Olsen, Acting Director of the Gender and Radiation Impact Project. Goodbye for now.