BMJ  2004;328 (6 March), doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7439.0-g

Editor's choice

"Doctor, come quickly. There's been a nuclear incident"

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

A friend of mine was recently late for the opera because he was preparing south London's plan for a nuclear attack. Despite living south of the Thames I don't think the plan justified missing the first bars of Turandot. But imagine the phone going in the middle of the night and a voice saying: "Doctor, can you come quickly? There's been a nuclear incident." Would you have any idea how to respond? The evidence suggests you wouldn't, which is why it might be a good idea to read our clinical review on the subject (p 568).

Unintentional and unexpected radiation incidents have so far been rare, with 134 deaths from 420 incidents worldwide between 1944 and 2002. Typically people find shiny metallic objects, put them in their pocket, and take them home—failing to realise that the objects are radioactive. The fear now is of a terrorist attack—the explosion . . . [Full text of this article]

(rsmith@bmj.com)

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