Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility

02/05/2026

WPSR climate and health task force member Gayle Kouklis testifies on the critical need for counties to develop heat response plans so people stay healthy - and alive - during extreme heat.

02/02/2026

01/31/2026

Interested in using your voice as a health professional to advance policy that makes WA a more peaceful just and healthy state? Get involved with WPSR and put your credibility to work for the wellbeing of our state! Join us at WPSR.org.

01/30/2026

WPSR member Adam
Lough provides testimony to the WA Legislature about the health harms and environmental costs of pollution from ocean-going vessels. 🛳️

01/28/2026

Now Accepting Applications: 2026 Emerging Leaders in Nuclear Weapons Abolition

In the summer of 2025, six inspiring young community members traveled to Hiroshima as part of the inaugural Dr. Dave Hall Emerging Leaders in Nuclear Weapons Abolition Program. WPSR, Ground Zero, and the American Committee of the World Friendship Center are proud to sponsor this program again and applications are now open for the 2026 Emerging Leaders Program.

Learn More: https://www.wpsr.org/emergingleaders

01/27/2026

It's 85 seconds to midnight.

Take action on nuclear weapons at nwanw.org/newstart and take action on the climate in WA state at www.wpsr.org/climate2026

01/26/2026

REP. LARSEN AND NEW START

On a sunny, cold afternoon this week a group from five organizations met in Representative Larsen's Bellingham office and picketed outside. We talked to his aid about the New START Treaty that's expiring February 5th and that will end decades of limiting nuclear weapons between the U.S. and Russia. After that there will be nothing to prevent a new arms race - a completely alarming threat that no politicians, the press, or the public are talking about.

Northwest Against Nuclear Weapons Bellingham, Veterans for Peace, Whatcom Peace and Justice Center, Pax Christi and us, No More Bombs, asked Congressman Larsen to Cosponsor H.Res.100, “Expressing support for the continued value of arms control agreements and negotiated constraints on Russian and Chinese strategic nuclear forces”. Or to at least make it known he supports New START.

Help us reach Representative Larsen! If he doesn't hear from us, how will he know we are concerned? Take action here: https://nwanw.org/newstart THANK YOU!

01/24/2026

Lakewood - WA

Community members from around the South Sound gathered in front of a new billboard on Bridgeport & Pacific warning of the expiration of the last nuclear limitation treaty, NewStart, on February 5th.

Dr. Karl Riecken, a member of Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility (WPSR), began the event by saying “On February 5th, the NewStart Treaty Expires. If that treaty expires the number of nuclear weapons deployed in our world will go up. There are already enough nuclear weapons in our world to destroy it several times over. The solution is only to reduce the number of nuclear weapons. Standing before I’m asking you to call your representatives about the NewStart Treaty..”. I'm doing this because as a physician, I care about the health and safety of my patients and the people I’m looking at right now.”

Chris Ferguson, a Quaker and leader with the Tacoma Friends Meeting shared “Since our inception over 350 years ago, Quakers have been opposed to participation in war. Since the introduction of nuclear weapons in 1945, it’s become ever more urgent for world leaders to seek peaceful resolutions to armed conflict. The expiration of the NewStart nuclear weapons treaty poses a dire threat to the uneasy nuclear truce that has existed for the past 80 years. We urge representatives to take action by blocking funding for nuclear testing and by supporting the resumption of the NewStart Treaty.”

Kit Burns, a retired architect and member of WPSR said “Recently president Trump said he wants to increase the military budget by 500 billion dollars. Our nuclear weapons budget is already committing us to spend 2 trillion dollars on nuclear weapons. Do you want to spend 2 trillion on educating our future generations? This is a critical decision point where leaders can step up and speak out against an arms race.”

Pastor Laura Nile Tuell of Lakewood Presbyterian Church said “Along with our interfaith colleagues I support Pope Francis’s 2019 declaration in Hiroshima, “that the use of atomic energy for the purposes of war is immoral, just as the possession of nuclear weapons is immoral”. It has long been said that the budget is a moral document. We are told that there isn’t money for childcare or elder care, childcare, or healthcare. Yet we are poised to spend atrocious amounts of money on these weapons while slashing vital services. This is contrary to our moral values.”

Eric Ard, a leader with AboutFace, Veterans Against the War shared “It’s never been more clear, the stewards of the two largest nuclear arsenals (US and Russia) are dangerously reactionary and volatile. An arms race would only further exacerbate the tensions in a world on the brink. Nuclear weapons, if used for their designed purposes, would make a world on the brink irretrievable.”

Lauren Bisplinghoff, an activist and leader with Tahoma Unitarian Universalist Congregation spoke as well

“I speak as a Unitarian leader and person of indigenous ancestry… I want to be clear about where we are here. On February 5th the NewStart nuclear agreement expires. If it is allowed to lapse without a replacement, no binding limits on nuclear weapons, no verifications, no guardrails against escalation.
When a nation prepares endlessly for war, that logic does not stay overseas. It imbeds itself into the land use decisions and how people are treated at home. We see this in the production chain of nuclear weapons, which begins not in abstract strategy rooms, but in real places and real land inhabited by real people. Here in Washington state the Hanford site remains one of the most contaminated nuclear locations in the world. Decades of plutonium production left behind millions of gallons of nuclear waste, impacting the Columbia River in particular. Communities downstream, mostly rural, working class, and indigenous have been left with elevated health risks from this legacy.

Mark Fleming, a leader with the Olympia Veterans for peace shared “Veterans for Peace nationally calls for ending war as an instrument of national policy and to abolish nuclear weapons. In the meantime, if we can’t abolish nuclear weapons, we need to control them, that’s why people need to speak to their representatives: Senator Patty Murray, Senator Cantwell, and their congressional delegation.”

George Rodkey, a leader with Tahoma Pax Christi and St. Leo’s Catholic Church shared “In a message to the bishop of Hiroshima on the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing, Pope Leo said nuclear weapons offend our shared humanity and also betray the dignity of creation, whose harmony we are called to safeguard”. The Vatican has called on the nuclear armed nations to fulfill Article 6 of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and take up the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.”

Joanne Dufour, a leader in the Olympia Coalition to Abolish Nuclear Weapons said “ We are part of a much larger voice that is praying for the same goal. The NewStart Treaty is a part of that goal because in fact, it worked. There are voices around the world..half the world’s governments have signed on to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. We want that hope for the world. We know we’re all in this together and we want a better world.”

Learn more at nwanw.org/newstart

01/23/2026

Americans Across Party Lines Want the U.S. to Keep Nuclear Limits with Russia, New Poll Finds

ReThink Media
January 21, 2026

https://rethinkmedia.org/blog/americans-across-party-lines-want-the-u-s-to-keep-nuclear-limits-with-russia-new-poll-finds/

01/23/2026

SEATTLE-WA

Billboards on Stewart st near Denny and 45th near UW warn of impending NewStart Treaty Expiration. Activists call for Congressional leaders to speak out in support of limiting nuclear weapons.

Patrick Burns, a member of Organized Workers for Labor Solidarity (OWLS) spoke. “Workers need to be aware of, nuclear weapons are right here in our neighborhood. We’re lucky that a major mistake hasn’t been made at Kitsap-Bangor. We need these treaties and need to keep sane limits.”

Denny Duffel, coordinator of Pax Christi Northwest and a deacon ordained by Archbishop Hunthausen shared the following:
“The Catholic Church has spoken out at the international level against the use and accumulation of nuclear weapons. It was Pope Frances who spoke out the most clearly as a religious leader in our time, saying that even the possession of nuclear weapons is immoral. Pax Christi in previous years has funded billboards to publicize Pope Francis’s words. Between the US and Russia we possess 83% of nuclear weapons on earth, that’s a whole lot of immoral between us. As a Deacon, I now work under Archbishop Paul Ettienne, who has also spoken out strongly against nuclear weapons…after visiting Japan with Archbishop Wester, he formed the Partnership for a World Without Nuclear Weapons with 3 bishops from Hiroshima and Nagasaki.”

Levin, an organizer with the Filipino-solidarity organization Bayan Washington spoke as well. “In the Philippines, the 123 Nuclear Deal was signed with the US, starting the process of sharing radioactive materials. This in addition to the potential of a growing arms race with the end of this agreement means that the Philippines will be utilized as staging grounds for these weapons. We support calls to contact elected officials to keep agreements like NewStart.”

Dr. Bill Donnely, a longtime member of the Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility also spoke. “People need to understand that money talks. We have a lot of big dollars from the weapons manufactures that are pushing our decision makers to rebuild our entire nuclear arsenal. We do not need ICBMs. We have to persuade residents that their best interest is not to have an arms race."

Go to nwanw.org/newstart to learn more and take action!

01/22/2026

Congratulations to Kimmy Siebens who is a valued member of our Economic Inequity and Health task force!

We are honored to recognize Kimmy Siebens as a recipient of this year’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Service Award.

This award honors members of our Harborview community who quietly embody Dr. King’s legacy by empowering others, addressing community needs, and helping build a stronger, more just community.

Kimmy, a nurse on the Trauma Surgical ICU at Harborview, runs two nonprofits in Bremerton. One of the non-profits helps unhoused and low‑income individuals with veterinary care for their pets, and another supports the unhoused community with a variety of resources.

She has helped countless individuals and families return to housing, working through her network of contacts to support every aspect of that journey. She also assists people in accessing treatment and detox services for substance abuse. The people Kimmy selflessly helps are never just names on a list, they become her friends, and they know that if she can help, she will.

Kimmy regularly holds giveaways of pet food and supplies for pets in need and has helped countless animals receive the veterinary care they desperately require, all at no cost to their owners. Kimmy wants everyone in the Bremerton community to thrive and prosper, and with her help, many are doing just that.

01/15/2026

Around 20 people gathered on the corner of Market Street and Liberty Avenue on Wednesday afternoon, waving flags sporting rainbow colors, peace signs and doves holding olive branches.