More than 100 medical journals internationally issued a uncommon joint name on Thursday for pressing motion to eradicate nuclear weapons, warning that the specter of nuclear disaster was “great and growing”.
The name comes with Russia repeatedly issuing thinly veiled warnings that Moscow might use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, in addition to repeated North Korean missile checks and stalling efforts in direction of non-proliferation.
An editorial revealed in quite a few medical journals referred to as on well being professionals worldwide to alert residents and leaders about “the major danger to public health” posed by nuclear weapons.
“The danger is great and growing,” stated the editorial, co-authored by the editors of 11 main medical journals together with the BMJ, Lancet, JAMA and the New England Journal of Medicine.
“The nuclear armed states must eliminate their nuclear arsenals before they eliminate us,” the editorial provides.
Chris Zielinski of the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) stated it was an “extraordinary development” that the competing journals, which usually combat for unique content material, had joined forces.
“That all of these leading journals have agreed to publish the same editorial underlines the extreme urgency of the current nuclear crisis,” he stated in a press release.
The editorial warned that any use of nuclear weapons “would be catastrophic for humanity”.
“Even a ‘limited’ nuclear war involving only 250 of the 13,000 nuclear weapons in the world could kill 120 million people outright and cause global climate disruption leading to a nuclear famine, putting two billion people at risk,” it warned, citing earlier analysis.
‘Dangerous second’
Ira Helfand, ex-president of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) and a co-author the editorial, advised French news company AFP: “We are facing an extraordinarily dangerous moment where the possibility of nuclear war is real.”
He pointed to a remark made simply this week by former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev threatening using nuclear weapons if Ukraine’s counter-offensive captured Russian territory.
“We don’t know if the threats are real or if they’re just put forward to scare people, but I think we have to take them very seriously,” Helfand stated.
He additionally pointed to North Korea, which Japan stated final week posed a extra critical menace to nationwide safety “than ever before”.
The editorial was launched on the identical week {that a} preparatory committee assembly is being held in Vienna for a evaluation of the UN’s Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which entered drive in 1970.
A evaluation of the keystone treaty held final yr did not undertake a joint declaration, with the United States denouncing “cynical obstructionism” from Russia.
The editorial lamented that “progress has been disappointingly slow”.
Sunday additionally marks the 68th anniversary of the primary nuclear weapon getting used on civilians – the US detonated an atomic bomb over the Japanese metropolis of Hiroshima on 6 August, 1945.
(AFP)
Originally revealed on RFI