In 1983 Russell-Jones gave evidence to the Royal Commission on Environmental pollution whose Ninth report, Lead in the Environment,[3] persuaded the UK Government to introduce lead-free petrol.
In 1986 he organized a conference on the biological effects of low level exposure to ionizing radiation, and the subsequent proceedings[4] were edited with Sir Richard Southwood FRS, Professor of Zoology at Oxford, and Chair of the NRPB.
International cancer risk estimates were subsequently revised upwards and dose limits for nuclear workers and the public were lowered.
In 1989 Russell-Jones was the anonymous author of an editorial[7] for The Lancet, Health in the Greenhouse,[8] the first time that any medical journal addressed the health impacts of global warming,[9] which concluded as follows: “Any strategy to combat global warming must be conducted on a global scale and is bound to involve enormous investment in energy conservation, re-afforestation, renewable sources of energy and changing patterns of agriculture and transportation This approach will require a new agenda for world leaders, a new role for the United Nations Environmental Programme, and a new awareness of man’s fundamental reliance on the integrity of world ecosystems.
The expense may be considerable, but the cost of doing nothing is incalculable.” In 2012 he established a small educational charity Help Rescue the Planet and organized an international conference[10] at the Royal Institute of British Architects, London on climate change.