Prescriptions for Survival – 9/25 thru 9/27

How worried are you about the fate of our planet? Climate change, wars, toxins in the environment threaten our health and the health of generations to come. Nuclear weapons, the ultimate catastrophe, are still with us. This conference will help you learn about the connections between health and the environment and look for potential solutions. We will examine the health effects of human rights violations, climate change, chemical waste, war, energy and resource depletion, economic policies, the ‘built environment’ and ‘greening’ of hospitals. Many of these issues have major consequences for basic human health and even survival hence the title: “Prescriptions for Survival”.

Objectives and specific outcomes:

1. To offer reliable, unbiased, user-friendly information such that participants can appreciate the interconnections between major issues of environment and militarism and their effects on health.
2. To support medical residents/students/fellows, our future physician leaders, and give them the tools they will need to communicate this knowledge to the broader public.
3. To promote land-use planning and ‘built environments’ that support active, healthy lifestyles and improve community and environmental health.
4. To renew public outrage that nuclear weapons are not only the ultimate weapon of war, but also can cause unfathomable environmental effects. Medical students are planning a “Target X” and soup kitchen campaign to coincide with this conference as a public awareness tool.
5. To reconnect the larger medical community to the fact that nuclear weapons are a public health concern and hence draw attention to ways of nuclear war prevention.
6. To recognize that climate change, sometimes described as a ‘threat multiplier’, is also a public health concern and look at ways of mitigating and adapting to these impacts.
7. To produce, as a result of the conference activities, some ‘prescriptions for survival’ for future use, which will be in the form of a conference report summarizing the key learnings.
8. To inspire and inform doctors and medical students to be more involved in their local communities and in the global village.

Contact Information
Andrea Levy, Physicians for Global Survival (Canada) national office
208-145 Spruce St., Ottawa, ON., K1R 6P1,
Phone: (613) 233-1982 Fax (613) 233-9028 Email: pgsadmin@web.ca
Nancy Covington, Halifax
Phone: (902) 479-3953 Email: nancy.covington@ns.sympatico.ca
Conference Web Site
Physicians for Global Survival (Canada) http://www.pgs.ca/