The passing of Rosalie Bertell, Ph.D., GNSH

[Oscar]

Dear Friends and Colleagues of Rosalie Bertell,

It is with sadness that I’m writing to inform you that our dear Sister Rosalie died early this morning, June 14, 2012, after a week or so in the hospital with severe respiratory distress due to advanced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Despite her illness, she remained in good spirits and most interested in all of the works of justice she strove to support throughout her life right to the end. She died very peacefully.

Her funeral Mass will be here at our Motherhouse Chapel on Monday, June 17th at 10 a.m.

We will be remembering all of you as well as Sister Rosalie in our prayers that day, along with all the people who were victims of nuclear disasters and the many other societal ills that were the concerns of her heart and her life’s work at the International Institute of Concern for Public Health.

Sincerely,

Sister Julia
Sister Julia C. Lanigan, GNSH
President
Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart
1750 Quarry Road
Yardley, PA 19067
215-968-4236
Website: www.greynun.org
Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart
Creating a Compassionate World

= = = = =


----- Original Message -----
From: "Ace Hoffman" <rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com>
Sent: Friday, June 15, 2012 10:59 AM
Subject: Dr. Rosalie Bertell, Grey Nun of the Sacred Heart, has passed away...


6/15/2012

Dear Readers,

This morning I learned of the passing yesterday (June 14th, 2012) of Dr. Rosalie Bertell, author of some of the most widely-read articles and books about nuclear issues including No Immediate Danger: Prognosis for a Radioactive Earth. She was 83.

Dr. Bertell was a Grey Nun of the Sacred Heart, the founder of the International Institute of Concern for Public Health (IICPH), the recipient of numerous honors (such as the Right Livelihood Award in 1986) and held several honorary degrees.

In the nuclear industry, every life has an exact value, and every vote can be bought. (That's one reason so many nuclear waste sites are located in sparsely populated poor communities. It's cheaper.)

A life's value is measured in dollars in America, yen, in Japan, euros in most of Europe, and so on. The exact amount is plugged into various computer programs which then calculate the expected loss from an "unexpected" accident.

(That's why they know not to transport spent nuclear fuel from San Onofre through Los Angeles, and wanted to build a "toll road" to Yucca Mountain instead (State Route 241 extension straight from SanO to Las Vegas/Yucca Mountain). But Yucca Mountain is on hold, and so the toll road, heavily opposed by locals for other reasons, is also on hold. But if Yucca Mountain is ever built, then Route 241 is sure to be bulldozed through shortly thereafter... because of a computer program which puts an exact value on each human life.)

But it is impossible calculate the value to society of the late Dr. Rosalie Bertell, who passed away peacefully from "severe respiratory distress due to advanced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease" (see below for the official death announcement from GNSH). (You can be sure she was not a smoker; she had merely been breathing our global polluted air all her life. So are you.)

Dr. Bertell was a biometrician, environmental epidemiologist, and cancer researcher. For a decade she was senior cancer research scientist at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute. Dr. Bertell wrote and spoke about Depleted Uranium ("you're basically throwing radioactive waste at your enemy...") and many other topics. After the Union-Carbide chemical spill in Bhopal, India, she went there as Director of the International Medical Commission to study the effects of that disaster (the largest non-nuclear industrial accident in history). She also looked into the technical aspects of "HAARP" (America's "High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program"), of which she wrote in 1996: "The ability of the HAARP / Spacelab/ rocket combination to deliver a very large amount of energy, comparable to a nuclear bomb, anywhere on earth via laser and particle beams, [is] frightening."

And every so often she wrote to me -- about a dozen times in the last 15 years, the last time being about a month after Fukushima. Every letter was a treasure, and two are shown below.

It is impossible to calculate the value of someone who so relentlessly spoke truth to power, science to dogma, fact to falsehoods, and reason to propaganda. And was so technically savvy while doing it.

We will miss Dr. Bertell with all our collective hearts. She was awesome.

Sincerely,

Ace Hoffman
Carlsbad, CA

-----------------------------------------------
At 09:32 AM 4/13/2011 -0400, the month after Fukushima, Dr. Rosalie Bertell wrote:

Dear Ace,

I am telling people to use distilled water. It can leach out the radioactive heavy metals from cooked products. Fruits can be soaked in it. If there is some internal contamination it is safe to drink even for a pregnant woman. Do not reuse the cooking water but throw it on the ground where no food is raised. Internally keep up hydration so that the nuclear debris does not go back into storage in the bone. See enclosure!

Rosalie Bertell
-------------------------------------------------

My favorite letter from Dr. Bertell was this one, of course:

At 02:36 PM 11/27/2008 -0500, Dr. Rosalie Bertell wrote:

Dear Ace, Thank you for sending me a copy of: The Code Killers.
It is quite a work of condensing and making clear what has been very obscure
(deliberately) and complex! I appreciate your work! Thank you! [...]

Rosalie Bertell
-------------------------------------------------

(The Code Killers is available as a free download from: www.acehoffman.org )

================================================

Ace Hoffman
Author, The Code Killers:
An Expose of the Nuclear Industry
Free download: acehoffman.org
Blog: acehoffman.blogspot.com
YouTube: youtube.com/user/AceHoffman
Phone: (760) 720-7261
Address: PO Box 1936, Carlsbad, CA 92018
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-----------------------------------------

[Oscar]

McNamara - Tribute to Rosalie Bertell

----- Original Message -----
From: Ent Work
Sent: Friday, June 15, 2012 9:46 PM
Subject: Rosalie Bertell, Ph.D., GNSH

Dear Sister Julia,

I’m terribly saddened to hear of the passing of Sister Rosalie. Though I never met her, she provided me with a great deal of assistance when I started opposing the nuclear industry in Port Hope a decade ago. This world-renowned and very busy lady always took time to answer the questions of a neophyte.

My initial contact with her was while writing my very first presentation. As I knew virtually nothing about nuclear science at the time, I sent her an e-mail asking her about a specific technical issue. She replied within fifteen minutes and informed me I didn’t have time to learn about it before I appeared in front of council. She’d written a ten line paragraph on the issue and directed me to: “drop this into your presentation and attribute it to me. No one will know what you’re talking about and they will not ask you any questions.” She was right.

Shortly after, I sent her a letter I was composing to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission on the contamination of a school. I was concerned about the harshness of it. Sister Rosalie responded:’ there’s nothing harsh about this. You’re telling the truth.” She also included a list of a dozen other organizations the letter should be sent to.

I’ve leaned on her lessons and her inspiration for the past ten years. I’m shedding tears of sadness for losing her and tears of joy for having known her. Though I cannot attend her funeral mass, please know that she will always be in my thoughts.

With a heavy heart,

Pat McNamara

[Oscar]

HARDING: Passing of Rosalie Bertell

----- Original Message -----
From: Stoody Harding
Sent: Tuesday, June 19, 2012 3:37 PM
Subject: Re: Rosalie Bertell, Ph.D., GNSH

Hello all.

Rosalie redirected my life when she stayed with us in Regina, Saskatchewan in the late 1970s while speaking on uranium mining.

Her integration of intelligence and ethics was an inspiring example for me.

I am so glad that I came to meet Rosalie and that I stayed in touch with her over the years.

My best to all the others who loved her and learned from her important work and example.

My heart is with you all.

Cheers,

Jim Harding,
Retired Professor of Justice Studies, University of Regina.

[Oscar]

Rosalie Bertell: scientist, author, Grey Nun and president of IICPH

http://pedagogicalpilgrim.com/?p=559

Posted on June 17, 2012 by Phil Little Rosalie Bertell – activist, scientist, nun and peacemaker died June 14, 2012 at age of 83

Rosalie was one of the constant figures in the Toronto scene, present wherever other progressive voices would gather, conferences, Good Friday walks, and investigating areas of the city with contaminated soil.

She was a very tiny woman with a big presence, speaking softly but not mincing her words and constantly sounding the alarm to the poisons we inject into Mother Earth – she said:

“There is no such thing as a radiation exposure that will not do damage. There is a hundred per cent possibility that there will be damage to cells. The next question is: which damage do you care about?” Dr. Rosalie Bertell, 1990

Rosalie was the founder of the International Institute of Concern for Public Health: http://www.iicph.org/.

Way before the Japanese Fukishima nuclear disaster, Rosalie was gathering information in the best of the scientific tradition on the dangers of low level nuclear contamination around the world.

Rosalie said “It seems that many of the world’s governments, including our own, are addicted to violence as a way to solve international problems. They suffer from ever increasing military budgets which rarely make us more secure. While most members of the global family do without, governments squander money and resources on arms, just the way alcoholics squander family resources on booze. ”

Jillian Skeet wrote about Rosalie: “In 1987, a secret government ‘risk assessment’ report on the peace movement, that was secretly leaked to us, listed Rosalie as the number one threat to the Canadian government because of her anti-nuclear work and her unsurpassed knowledge of the dangers of nuclear radiation to human health.”

I knew Rosalie but just barely – we met as we moved among many of the same progressive people. She was part of the Solidaridad group, with whom we had many friends and sometimes attended their gatherings. She was a nun – the type feared by the Vatican power brokers because there were few of her stature who could even understand her. Others have written about her – her remarkable life. I am content to have met this great pilgrim – to have shared some of the road with her and to give thanks for her life and witness.

a poem from Rosalie found on her website
http://www.rosaliebertell.net/:

And God Cries…
Reddened evening sky, candle flickering gently, it is the hour of prayer
and in the stillness a great pain wells up -Mothers stoned and burned alive, children beaten and trained to kill -
and God cries…

In the stillness, shrill terror breaks the air, distress invades my heart
the crush of hopeless despair is upon me

“Disappearing” husbands and children, a human shield bulldozed
and God cries…

Will the killing never stop? Families fleeing, cramped in tents, deprived of hope;
“bunker busters” causing the Earth to quake

Each tear, each cry held precious by a God who loves with passion
and God cries’..

Gently the suffering with their compassionate brothers and sisters are consoled
How sweet the healing presence

Cradled in God’s arms the broken and terrorized are calmed and the pain leaves
and God cries’..

Into my heart comes the pain as global tensions ease, and I too am calmed
and God cries with joy.

Rosalie Bertell

[Oscar]

Obituary for Sister Rosalie Bertell Ph.D. -- a giant in the struggle to illuminate our hearts and minds

----- Original Message -----
From: Gordon Edwards
Sent: Sunday, June 24, 2012 9:29 PM
Subject: Obituary for Sister Rosalie Bertell Ph.D. -- a giant in the struggle to illuminate our hearts and minds

Background:

We all know that we have lost a giant with the passing of Sister Rosalie Bertell, Ph.D.

I knew of Rosalie Bertell's work at the Roswell Park Memorial Institute where she first gained invaluable insights into the manner in which ionizing radiation degrades the health of all and impairs the intelligence of very young children.

I was lucky enough to go with Rosalie on a trip to Korea to visit the communities where the CANDU nuclear reactors are located, seeing at first hand her compassionate heart and her scientific mind working in seamless harmony.

To me, she is a trailblazer in the practice of Science and Mathematics in the Public Interest -- something the human community sorely needs if we are to survive our own technologies.

It is pitiful to see scientists and engineers allowing themselves to be shackled in jobs where their conscience is anaesthetized, their voices are stilled, and their actions are severely limited because they have sold their services to a corporation, a government agency, or a military establishment.

Rosalie saw that science has to be put at the service of humanity and that scientific language has to be demystified so we can all understand the magnitude of the stakes and the enormity of what we are doing to earth's living systems.

Scientific thought devoid of compassion, concern and action -- for the good of humanity and all life on earth -- is not only sterile, but rapidly becomes enormously destructive.

May Rosalie rest in peace, but may her spirit remain very much alive and active in the world, because we need it -- we need her -- so much.

Gordon Edwards.
-----------------------------------------------

Sister Rosalie Bertell, GNSH

Dr. Rosalie Bertell, GNSH, Ph.D.

Sr. Rosalie Bertell, GNSH, Ph. D, an internationally recognized environmental epidemiologist, cancer researcher and public health advocate, died June 14, 2012, at age 83 in Saint Mary Medical Center, Langhorne, PA, in the 54th year of her religious life.

Dr. Bertell entered the field of cancer research at Roswell Park Memorial Institute, Buffalo in the 1970s. What started there grew into a lifetime devoted to research, writing, public speaking and advocacy work on the effects of low-level radiation on human health.

Prior to founding the International Institute of Concern for Public Health in Toronto, Canada in 1984, she was an Energy/Public Health specialist at the Jesuit Centre for Social Faith and Justice in Toronto for four years. Sister traveled the globe, researching and advising ways of dealing with the chemical and nuclear hazards which endanger the environment and erode the health of people worldwide until shortly before her death.

Sister Rosalie authored two books, No Immediate Danger (1985) and Planet Earth: The Latest Weapon of War (2000) ) and more than a hundred articles. She was named to the Global 500 Roll of Honour 1993 (United Nations Environment Programme), and was the recipient of the Right Livelihood Award, December, 1986.

Among other accolades, Sister Rosalie received numerous honorary doctorates in recognition of her scholarly and professional work and her efforts as a social justice advocate.

Born and educated in Buffalo, New York, she earned her BA in Math/Physics/Education from D'Youville College. She was in the Buffalo Carmelite Community 1951-1956, leaving for health reasons. Before entering the Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart in 1958, she served on the faculty of Catholic University, Washington, DC for a year.

From Catholic University, she received a Masters in Mathematics/Philosophy and a Doctorate in Mathematics/Biology/ Biometrics.

Sister Rosalie was in administration and on the faculty of Sacred Heart Junior College in Yardley, PA for ten years. She taught at D'Youville Academy in Chamblee, GA and was an Associate Professor of Mathematics for four years at D'Youville College.

In addition to her religious family, Sister Rosalie is survived by nieces and nephews. In lieu of flowers contributions may be made to the Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart, 1750 Quarry Rd., Yardley, PA 19067-3998.

Wake Service was at 7 PM on Sunday, June 17 and the funeral Mass was at 10 AM on Monday, June 18 in Sacred Heart Chapel at the Grey Nuns’ Motherhouse in Yardley, PA.

Burial was in Resurrection Cemetery in Bensalem, PA.

Funeral arrangements by Beck Givnish