Rosalie Bertell was born to Paul G. and Helen (née Twohey) Bertell in
Buffalo, New York, the third of four children. Her mother was
Canadian and her father was
American. She had an older sister, Mary Katherine Bertell (1925–2011), and a younger brother, John Twohey Bertell (1930–2002). A third sibling, Paul W. Bertell died in infancy in 1921. In 1966, she received a Ph.D. in
Biometrics from the
Catholic University of America. She received her BA in Math/Physics/Education from
D'Youville College, and later was an associate professor of mathematics at D'Youville from 1969 to 1973. From 1969 to 1978, Bertell was senior
cancer research scientist at
Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. She was a consultant to the US
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the US
Environmental Protection Agency, and to
Health Canada. In 1983, she received the "Hans-Adalbert Schweigart"-Medal from the
World Union for Protection of Life. She was president of International Institute of Concern for Public Health from 1987 to 2004. She founded the International Medical Commission Chernobyl in 1996. She wrote the books
No Immediate Danger: Prognosis for a Radioactive Earth (1985) and
Planet Earth: The Latest Weapon of War (2000). Bertell was a coordinator for the
International Medical Commission on Bhopal, and campaigned for an independent body "to coordinate health care, research and rehabilitation" for victims of the
Bhopal disaster. Bertell's Nuclear Contamination Act was adopted April 2006, as World Legislative Act 35 by the 9th session of the
Provisional World Parliament. She suffered attempts on her life, and attacks on her scientific credentials. In 2012, Bertell died of cancer at age 83 at
Saint Mary Medical Center,
Langhorne, Pennsylvania. ==Awards==