Ending Nuclear Weapons, Before They End Us

Abstract

This May, the World Health Assembly (WHA) will vote on re-establishing a mandate for the World Health Organization (WHO) to address the health consequences of nuclear weapons and war (1). Health professionals and their associations should urge their governments to support such a mandate and support the new UN comprehensive study on the effects of nuclear war. The first atomic bomb exploded in the New Mexico desert 80 years ago, in July 1945. Three weeks later, two relatively small (by today's standards), tactical-size nuclear weapons unleashed a cataclysm of radioactive incineration on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. By the end of 1945, about 213,000 people were dead (2). Tens of thousands more have died from late effects of the bombings.