Context:
The International Committee of the Red Cross and the World Medical Association have issued important and very timely calls for states to join and implement the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
In the News:
“On April 23, ICRC president Peter Maurer, reiterating the ICRC’s long-standing appeal “to all States, global leaders and citizens to act on the increasing risk of the use of nuclear weapons,” said that ‘States should take the necessary steps to adhere to the 1972 NPT, the 1996 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and other nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation treaties to which they are not yet party and fully implement their provisions.'”
“The catastrophic humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons use cannot be limited in time and space, and…more victims will die in the months and years following their use than at the moment of the blast through radiation poisoning, cancers and other diseases”.
– International Committee of the Red Cross
Insight from Peace Science:
- In 2004, the U.S. National Cancer Institute estimated that about half of the cancer cases that would occur as a result of Marshall Islands nuclear testing are still to come.
- Cancer studies have shown that workers during the British nuclear tests in Australia have a 23% higher cancer rate and are 18% more likely to die of cancer than the general public.
- French Polynesia, ground zero for France’s nuclear weapon testing, has the highest rate of acute myeloid leukemia and thyroid cancer in the world— both radiation-induced types of cancer.
References:
- Global health leaders rally behind the Ban Treaty. By the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. Peace and Health Blog. April 30, 2018.
- Peace Science Digest Volume 2 Special Issue: Nuclear Weapons “Long-Term Human Costs of Nuclear Weapons Tests in the Pacific”
