Mary Olson

Background

About Mary Olson

My life’s mission is to bring to light the disproportionate impact of radiation on girls and women. My background in biology, biochemistry, and my own experience with radioactive contamination as a young woman working in a research lab, has put me in a unique position to speak publicly on radiation policy from a health, safety, and humanitarian perspective. I hope to inspire cancer prevention strategies worldwide that will contribute to more successful reproduction and viability of future generations through my work as founder of Gender and Radiation Impact Project. I have had the honor of speaking at events globally to share my research findings. 2022 - Vienna Conference - Nations who have now signed the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons were briefed on the Humanitarian Consequences of Nuclear Weapons ahead of the first meeting of States Parties to the TPNW. 2020 - International Committee of the Red Cross - Leadership briefing 2018 - Gender Summit 15 London 2017 - United Nations - Presentation during negotiations on a new global treaty to ban nuclear weapons whose preamble was written to include reference to gender and radiation. 2016 - featured speaker during a five-week tour of Japan and spoke on the medical consequences of nuclear weapons at an event sponsored by the International Committee of the Red Cross in Russia 2016 - Gender Summit 9 Brussels 2015 - United Nations - Review of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty 2014 - Vienna Conference on Humanitarian Consequences of Nuclear Weapons After the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011, I decided to pursue questions about greater harm to girls and women from exposure to radiation. From a study of survivors of US nuclear strikes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, compiled over sixty years, I learned there is measurably greater harm from radiation to girls and women compared to boys and men. My briefing paper on the subject has formed the basis of my core work ever since and has led to speaking engagements worldwide. I started my career as a staff biologist and radioactive waste policy analyst at Nuclear Information and Resource Service 1991-2019, I spent 3 decades working for greater health and protection for people in communities impacted by nuclear activities. I studied radiation health consequences with some of the leading radiation researchers of the 20th Century including Bertell, Stewart, Caldicott, and Wing. I was also featured in the educational film The Ultimate Wish: Ending the Nuclear Age.