Over 100 medical journals warn of looming global nuclear threat

More than 100 global medical journals have called for urgent action to eliminate nuclear weapons as the threat of a global nuclear catastrophe was “great and growing." 

An editorial published on Thursday in numerous medical journals, called on health professionals worldwide to alert citizens and leaders about “the major danger to public health” posed by nuclear weapons.

"The danger is great and growing," said the editorial, co-authored by the editors of 11 leading medical journals including 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 said.

Chris Zielinski of the World Association of Medical Editors said it was an "extraordinary development" that the competing journals 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 said in a statement, the AFP reported.

"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," the editorial warned, citing previous research.

Ira Helfand, ex-president of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War and a co-author of the editorial said, "We are facing an extraordinarily dangerous moment where the possibility of nuclear war is real."

 Pointing to Dmitry Medvedev’s comment this week, where the former Russian President said his country will be forced to use a nuclear weapon if Ukraine succeeds in its ongoing counteroffensive to tear off part of the Russian territory, Helfand said, “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," the AFP reported.

While Russia and North Korea are being blamed for nuclear threats, the US for the year 2023 allocated $813.3 billion for its defense budget with a nearly $60 billion increase from the last year.

In this huge defense budget, an enormous share of $50.9 billion has been allocated to nuclear weapons, recording a 17 percent increase over $43.2 billion from 2022.

“About a third of this outlay is for the Energy Department’s nuclear complex—including its weapons labs, plutonium pits, and the production and testing of warheads and bombs”, Slate a US-based online magazine reported.

Being the first country to use nuclear weapons, the United States dropped the world’s first atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, destroying the city and killing 140,000 people. It dropped a second bomb three days later on Nagasaki, killing another 70,000.

The country has reportedly spread its nuclear arsenal in several countries across Europe including, Italy, Germany, Turkey, Belgium and the Netherlands.

In a bid to replace its nuclear weapon system the United Kingdom is also set to spend approximately £172 billion from 2019 to 2070.

The 2023 Integrated Review Refresh, a government review that covers foreign policy, defense, and international issues has confirmed that an additional £5 billion will be provided to the Ministry of Defense over the next two years, to help replenish and bolster vital ammunition stocks and modernize the UK’s nuclear enterprise.

In the integrated review of 2021, the government declared that the UK will now move towards an overall nuclear weapon stockpile of approximately 260 warheads, with an increase of over 40 percent from its previous nuclear stockpile.

It is important to mention that London has been the largest provider of military support to Kiev in its war against Moscow.

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