Response to radiation incidents and radionuclear threats: Renunciation of nuclear weapons could lessen the threat

doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7447.1074-b

BMJ 2004;328:1074 (1 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7447.1074-b

Letter

Response to radiation incidents and radionuclear threats

Renunciation of nuclear weapons could lessen the threat

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

EDITOR—We agree with Turai et al in their review of themedical response to radiation incidents that the use of nuclearweapons is currently unlikely,¹ but we are concerned that recentdevelopments could lower the nuclear threshold worldwide.

First hydrogen bomb, Semipalatinsk,1953

Credit: PAUL LOWE/PANOS

Some 20 000 nuclear weapons are active today, many on high alert.Each is several times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb,which if used on a major city in the United Kingdom would overwhelmmedical services.² The United States is planning "bunker busters"or "mini nukes," officially known as "low yield earth penetratingweapons," claiming that their use would cause less "collateraldamage" from blast or heat than existing nuclear weapons. However,"venting" would produce major fallout over several square kilometresdownwind, causing hundreds of cases of radiation sickness inurban areas.³

Health workers can support an initiative towards reducing the. . . [Full text of this article]

Douglas Holdstock, honorary secretary

Medact, Grayston Centre, London N1 6HT info@medact.org

Elizabeth Waterston, convenor, nuclear hazards group

Medact, Grayston Centre, London N1 6HT info@medact.org

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Medical response to radiation incidents and radionuclear threats: István Turai, Katalin Veress, Bengül Günalp, and Gennadi Souchkevitch
BMJ 2004 328: 568-572. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]