Cindy Folkers

Radiation and Health Hazard Specialist, Beyond Nuclear

Since joining Beyond Nuclear in 2007, Cindy has focused on ionizing radiation and its impact on health and the environment. From 1994 until 2007, she served as the radiation and health specialist at Nuclear Information and Resource Service.

Cindy communicates with media, members of the public, U.S. Congress, and national and international agencies on radiation and health regulation and science. She has traveled and spoken at public meetings, conferences and academic symposia.

She has worked to ensure public participation in National Academy of Sciences panels investigating the health effects of radiation, notifying activists across the country of regional meetings for these NAS committees and informing people about interacting with the committee through both verbal and written comments.

In her work on radiation, she emphasizes the use of precaution in the face of uncertain health outcomes rather than exposing people to a substance, like radiation, that is known to cause harm. She advocates for community-based action that informs individuals of contamination levels and risks so that they may decide for themselves what risks they are willing to take, rather than being exposed without their knowledge or consent. Cindy advocates for public openness regarding contamination monitoring, and the scientific basis for determining both the harm from radiation, and regulations that are supposed to be protective. For full protection of health, a more integrated approach is needed between a number of scientific disciplines in order to get a clearer picture of how radiation harms and how the public should be better informed and protected.

Published works include “Radiation and children: the ignored victims” in Transforming Terror: remembering the soul of the world from University of California Press, 2011; and “Post-Fukushima food monitoring” in Crisis without End from The New Press, 2014.

Cindy has a Bachelor of Arts from Franklin and Marshall College and a Masters of Science in Environmental Science from The Johns Hopkins University. Cindy grew up in Florida.