Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility (WPSR) is a health professional-led advocacy organization working to create a healthy, just, peaceful and sustainable world. For over 40 years, we have taken on the gravest threats to human health and survival: nuclear weapons, economic inequity, and the climate crisis. We leverage the voice of health professionals, and those passionate about our work, to educate the public, influence decision-makers, and promote policies that support our mission. Learn more about who we are and what we do.
WPSR’s Health Professional-led Programs
WPSR’s three issue-based programs are powered by volunteer health professionals and others who work together, and with community and coalition partners, to develop advocacy strategies and campaigns that advance policy on the gravest threats to health. Learn more and join us.
News, Views, and Tools You Can Use!
〰️
News, Views, and Tools You Can Use! 〰️
Extreme affects us all. Our state and the world are hotter than ever, and getting hotter. Read this opinion piece and call to action in the Seattle Times by WPSR physicians Drs. Chris Covert-Bowlds, Michael Soman, and Brek Lebegue,
WPSR Board and Task Force member Dr. Annemarie Dooley speaks about the health dangers of transportation emissions from Amazon’s enormous fleet of delivery vehicles, and from transportation generally which is the largest source of CO2 emissions. Watch it here!
Children in homes with gas stoves have a 42% increased risk of asthma symptoms. We need funding and programs for Washington families to swap out gas for electric heating and cooking in their homes. Listen to WPSR’s Dr. Mark Vossler talk about the health risks of gas stoves in homes, and how you can get involved and take action with us.
Perplexed about our state’s legislative process? This short WPSR-produced video provides a concise, easy-to-understand primer on how the Washington state legislative session works, including how the legislature is structured, and how a bill gets introduced and becomes a law. “Legislative Advocacy 101” also includes tips on how you can get involved as an advocate when it comes to issues and pieces of legislation that you care about. Watch now, and get in touch with us if you have questions about the legislative session and how you can get involved as a health advocate!
WPSR’s “Climate & Health / Washington 2022: A Special Report on Impacts & Solutions” provides an overview of the connections between the climate crisis and health in our state that can inform health professionals, policymakers in government and industry, and the public regarding both health threats and health opportunities. The report includes policy recommendations about ways to respond to the challenge of climate change while protecting the health and well-being of all the people of Washington state, today and into the future. Download the full report here.
WPSR Board Member Dr. Stephen Bezruchka’s new book, Inequality Kills Us All details what produces health in a population and prescribes the required “medicine” to prevent our being dead first among rich nations. The causes of our poor health are political, so the remedies must also be political. The public remains unaware that all the other rich nations–and quite a number of poor ones–have better health outcomes than we do. Why? Economic inequality kills, and early life lasts a lifetime. Income and wealth inequality is akin to an odorless, colorless, highly toxic gas that kills us from the usual causes—heart disease, cancers, and now COVID-19.
Listen to / watch Dr. Bezruchka speak about his book, and the causes of adverse and unequal health in the U.S., in a January 2023 interview on KPFA’s “Against the Grain” and on the Thom Hartman Show.
WPSR is pleased to share “the Health Consequences of Extracting, Transporting and Burning ‘Natural’ Gas.” Authored by Dr. Mark R. Vossler (WPSR President and Climate & Health Task Force member) this multi-part series explores the health impacts of the use of gas at every point along the product cycle.
Check out some of our newest advocacy tools - useful resources for anyone engaged in advocacy work, on any issue. Our advocacy tools and resources will help you learn essential skills for using your health voice to address the gravest threats to health. Learn more…
““I spend a lot of time listening to public committee hearings, and every time I hear a speaker introduce themselves as a member of Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility, I perk up out of my testimony slumber. I know it’s going to be good. WPSR makes a difference in policy debates because its members flat out have more credibility than the rest of us. WPSR members focus on the impact of policy on public health, and nearly all of the other testifiers would be hard-pressed to find an issue more important. WPSR health professionals are able to offer very specific examples that they have seen in their work and also to address issues from both a clinical and a moral imperative, and legislators listen. The impact is significant, and I appreciate both the time WPSR members put into advocating for human lives and the moral authority they offer on critical issues.””
WPSR Needs Health
Advocates like you
Learn more about
WPSR Membership
Upcoming Events
Live outside of Washington and looking for your local PSR Chapter? Visit this page for a directory of our peers across the nation!
