The Globe and Mail: Once a Nuclear Bomb Explodes, there is No Meaningful Medical Response.

In a response to a recent article in The Globe and Mail by Elizabeth Renzetti on nuclear anxiety and disarmament linked here, IPPNWC President Dr. Jonathan Down and past IPPNWC President, Dr. Mary-Wynne Ashford, discuss the lack of medical response to a nuclear detonation. Read their response linked here or below.

NO NUCLEAR

The Globe and Mail (Alberta Edition), March 19th, 2022

Re The Answer To Nuclear Anxiety Is To Get Rid Of Nuclear Weapons (Opinion, March 12): Once a nuclear bomb explodes, there is no meaningful medical response.

Hospitals would be destroyed and most doctors and nurses would die immediately. No burn units, intravenous solutions, sterile bandages nor morphine – nothing to ease suffering and prevent death.

There would be no electricity, running water nor transportation. The electromagnetic pulse would destroy communications. People would flee the firestorm with horrendous burns and survivors would suffer from radiation effects.

We have worked for the total abolition of nuclear weapons since 1980, when International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War was founded. The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons for its work in advancing the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

The treaty came into effect in January, 2021. But along with the nine nuclear states, Canada has not signed it.

Jonathan Down President, IPPNW Canada; Victoria

Mary-Wynne Ashford Past president, IPPNW; Victoria