Nuclear Disarmament: A Public Health Imperative

The Health and Humanitarian Case for Nuclear Disarmament

Physicians and health professionals are leaders in advocating for public health solutions to growing nuclear weapons dangers in our world today. Any use of nuclear weapons would have devastating health, humanitarian and environmental consequences.

Prevention Is the Only Cure

Physicians and health professionals warn that a meaningful medical response to any use of nuclear weapons would be impossible. We can’t prepare for nuclear war, we must prevent it.

A nuclear attack on any city would destroy hospitals and clinics, kill the vast majority of health professionals, wipe out medical supplies, and paralyze communication and transportation systems.

International health federations, including the World Medical Association, International Committee of the Red Cross, International Council of Nurses, International Federation of Medical Students' Associations, and World Federation of Public Health Associations, have officially endorsed the Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty on the basis that a meaningful medical response to any use of nuclear weapons would be impossible.

Read the report “Unspeakable suffering, the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapon," from PSR affiliate ICAN.

Regional Nuclear War, Global Health Impacts

Nuclear war is ecocidal.

Scientific studies demonstrate that a regional nuclear war would have planetary impacts on the climate, agriculture and global health. IPPNW's report, Nuclear Famine, outlines these dangers.

The latest report from climate scientists Lili Xia, Alan Robock and their colleagues confirms our worst fears about the health consequences of nuclear weapons. Most notably, after the initial effects from blast, burns and radiation, the world would face climate impacts causing unprecedented starvation.

The smallest-scale of the report's nuclear war scenarios — involving only a tiny percentage of the world’s arsenals – would decrease global caloric consumption by seven percent, on average. If the United States and Russia had a nuclear war, the climate impacts on agriculture and other food production would be so severe that caloric consumption would drop 90 percent, on average, across the entire planet. Five billion people are estimated to perish from starvation in this scenario.

Read IPPNW's Nuclear Famine Report here.

Beyond the Blast

Nuclear weapons inflict devastating health harms to civilians even before a bomb is detonated.

Nuclear weapons activities, including their use, production, testing, and waste storage, release ionizing radiation. In addition to the wartime citizens of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, workers, veterans, and civilians living near nuclear weapons sites have been exposed to radiation and suffer acute and long-term illnesses. These illnesses are often lethal and have inter-generational health effects.

Illnesses from radiation exposure from nuclear weapons activities include:

Leukemia
Multiple myeloma
Stomach, colon, lung, breast, and thyroid cancers
Cataracts

Birth defects
Infertility
Chromosomal aberrations
Hemorrhaging
Infections

Learn more:

Photo: Martha Brice

Featured Resource

Nuclear Famine: Even a “limited” nuclear war would cause abrupt climate disruption and global starvation

August 2022

This report from IPPNW summarizes the new nuclear famine report in Nature Food from a public health perspective, by Matt Bivens, MD, a member of PSR National Board and Greater Boston PSR Board.

Download report

More Disarmament Resources

Frequently Asked Questions

Nuclear Weapons 101

Which countries possess nuclear weapons?

How many nuclear weapons are in the world today?

How would people be impacted by a nuclear attack?

A nuclear attack on any city would be a humanitarian catastrophe. One nuclear weapon could potentially wipe out an entire city. The heat and blast effects would indiscriminately kill tens of thousands to tens of millions of civilians depending on the city’s density and the explosive power of the warhead.

The 15-kiloton atomic bomb that the United States dropped on Hiroshima immediately killed 70,000 people and injured approximately 75,000 people. By the end of 1945, 140,000 people in Hiroshima had died. The 21-kiloton atomic bomb that the United States dropped on Nagasaki immediately killed 74,000 people and injured 75,000 people. 90,000 people in Nagasaki were dead by the end of 1945.

Today’s strategic nuclear weapons are 6 to 53 times more powerful than the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A PSR study modeled the humanitarian impact of launching 300 Russian nuclear weapons against U.S. cities. The study found 75 to 100 million people would die within 30 minutes.

In the event of a nuclear attack, physicians and health professionals would not be able to deliver medical assistance to immediate survivors. Physicians and relief agencies such as the International Committee on the Red Cross warn that a meaningful emergency response to the use of nuclear weapons on any city is impossible. A nuclear attack would destroy a city’s healthcare infrastructure, kill the majority of health professionals, and render transportation and communication systems unusable.

Using nuclear weapons have long-term impacts on global health and the environment. Scientific research shows that a regional war using less than one percent of the global nuclear stockpile would drastically disrupt the climate and put two billion people at risk of severe malnutrition.

Are nuclear weapons legal?

The nuclear-armed countries party to the Non-Proliferation Treaty are legally obligated to negotiate complete nuclear disarmament and eliminate their nuclear weapons. However, all nine nuclear-armed countries are working to perpetuate and upgrade their nuclear weapons programs rather than fulfill their existing legal disarmament obligations. The United States plans to spend $1.2 trillion over 30 years to substantially improve the capability of its nuclear arsenal.

The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) was adopted by the UN General Assembly in July 2017 to strengthen the Non-Proliferation Treaty by comprehensively prohibiting nuclear weapons. The TPNW makes it illegal for parties of the treaty to use, develop, test, produce, manufacture, acquire, possess, stockpile, transfer, receive, threat to use, station, install, or deploy nuclear weapons. The treaty will officially enter into force after fifty countries sign and ratify the treaty.

Who has control over using nuclear weapons?

How much do Americans pay to perpetuate the U.S. nuclear weapon program?

In 2022 total expenditure for the U.S. nuclear program was $43.7 billion. This is three to five times the budget for cancer research or the federal budget for FEMA's total budget to assist states and communities that have been devastated by disasters and emergencies. Within the healthcare system, that spending could fund 300,000 beds in intensive care intensive care units, 35,000 ventilators, and the salaries of 150,000 U.S. nurses and 75,000 U.S. doctors.

Find out how much the nuclear weapons complex is costing your community.

By the Numbers

1,800

nuclear weapons are on high alert

Nuclear Warheads

9,500 nuclear weapons are active in military arsenals. 4,000 nuclear weapons are considered “operationally available.”

9

nuclear-armed countries

Nuclear States

The United States, Russia, China, the United Kingdom, France, Israel, India, Pakistan, and North Korea all possess nuclear weapons.

Photo: Clare Conboy/ICAN

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