Over 100 medical journals around the globe issued a rare, joint call to action on Thursday calling for immediate action to eradicate nuclear weapons. They warned of the “greater and growing” threat that nuclear disaster poses.
The call comes from Russia has repeatedly issuedRepeated and thinly veiled threats that Moscow may use nuclear weapons to invade Ukraine North Korean missile testsThe halting of efforts to non-proliferation.
In an editorial that appeared in a number of medical journals, health professionals were urged to inform citizens and government leaders about the “major threat to public safety” posed by nukes.
“The danger is increasing,” The editorialThe co-authors of the book include the editors from 11 medical journals. BMJ, Lancet, JAMAThen, there is the New England Journal of Medicine.
The nuclear-armed states must eliminate all their nuclear arsenals first before they can eliminate us.
Chris Zielinski of World Association of Medical Editors called it an “extraordinary event” that the competing medical journals had united. Normally, they would fight over exclusive content.
“The extreme urgency of this nuclear crisis is highlighted by the fact that all of these leading magazines have agreed to publish an editorial at the same time,” he said. The following are some of the ways to get in touch with each otherIn a statement.
The editorial warns against the use of nuclear weaponry, which “would be catastrophic to humanity”.
The report cites previous research to warn that “even a limited” nuclear war could result in the death of 120 million people.
Dangerous Moment
Ira Helfand (ex-president of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War) and co-author of the editorial told AFP, “We face an extraordinarily dangerous situation where the possibility of a nuclear war is very real.”
He brought up a comment that former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev made this week, threatening to use nuclear weapons if Ukraine’s counter-offensive took Russian territory.
Helfand added: “We do not know if these threats are genuine or just a way to scare the public, but we must take them seriously.”
He pointed out that North Korea was a threat to Japan’s national security, “more than ever before”.
The editorial appeared in the same time period as the preparatory committee in Vienna meeting for the review of the UN Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which was signed in 1970.
The United States and Russia denounced “cynical oppositionism” in a review of the Keystone Treaty that was held last year.
The editorial complained that “progress had been disappointingly slow”.
Sunday also marks the 68th anniversary of the first nuclear weapon being used on civilians – the US detonated an atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945.
