I'm a writing staff interested in the medical field and in this project, I evaluated the nuclear weapon's impacts from a medical perspective.
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<Physical Harm>
The most obvious and significant threat of nuclear weapons is the immense casualties that the explosion generates. When a nuclear bomb is detonated, it produces a massive amount of shock wave and thermal radiation whose magnitude far exceeds other bombs’. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, when a nuclear weapon explodes, the initial temperatures are tantamount to that of the center of the sun, and 85% of the explosive energy transforms into air blast and thermal radiation. The shock wave caused by the air blast generates a destructive wind that sweeps through buildings and other structures. The debris is scattered through the air with high velocity, causing even more deaths. The thermal radiation can simply be referred to as heat, and it causes skin burns and eye injuries. There is also a potential for a firestorm, which is a coalescence of numerous fires lit by the explosion. The firestorm virtually burns everything within its impact range. As described in the United States Strategic Bombing Survey, the firestorm in Hiroshima swept over 15 square miles within 6 hours, burning nearly everything in the region. This shows that thermal radiation significantly adds to the death toll. These are some of the products of a nuclear explosion that directly harms people’s physical health, annihilating the population.
However, the more severe impacts are caused by radiation and fallout. When a nuclear bomb is detonated, an astronomical amount of radiation is emitted. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, exposure to high levels of radiation can cause acute health effects such as skin burns, cancer, and cardiovascular disease. These health impacts are accurately reflected in Hiroshima and Nagasaki incidents. According to the book “The Medical Implications of Nuclear War”, the two explosions killed more than 170,000 people in total and caused “blood cell abnormalities, high fevers, chronic fatigue, diarrhea, vomiting, and depression” among the survivors. The cancer rate was also high for those who were exposed to radiation. This clearly shows that radiation causes detrimental health effects.
<Harm Induced by the Nuclear Weapon Test>
However, this is only a single aspect of nuclear weapons. In order to develop nuclear weapons, numerous tests are inevitably conducted. These tests, which involve a similar magnitude of an explosion as in the nuclear war, also emit a great amount of radiation. As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention mentions, before 1963, the world had conducted more than 500 nuclear weapons tests in the atmosphere, and the radioactive matter were scattered through the air by the wind, traveling all around the world. Among all the radioactive products of nuclear weapons testing, Iodine-131 is the most harmful radioactive particle. It is the cause of various thyroid diseases including thyroid cancer. Other emissions such as strontium-90 might cause leukemia and bone marrow depression. There are numerous ways that a person might get exposed to the radioactive particle, but they can generally be categorized into two: external and internal. External exposure refers to the direct skin contact with the radioactive particles, and internal exposure includes breathing the air that contains the radioactive matter and consuming foodstuffs with radioactive fallout. The study also suggests that almost every United States citizen was exposed to Iodine-131 to some extent, some having increased cancer risk ascribed to the tests.
Nevada testing site, a nuclear weapons testing site established in 1951, is one of the most notorious nuclear testing sites in the world. According to the United States Department of Energy Nevada Operations Office, an astonishing total of 928 nuclear weapon tests took place at the testing site, 100 of the detonation being atmospheric (explosion at the ground-level). Throughout the repetitive testing process, radioactive particles were emitted into the air, exposing the myriads of individuals. There are many studies aiming to discover the magnitude of radioactive exposure, and one particular study from the National Cancer Institute provides a detailed estimation of the average Iodine-131 dose. According to the legend, the reddish-pink part covering more than one-third of the contiguous United States indicates more than 10 rads of exposure per capita. The study summarizes that the average exposure rate per capita is about 2 rad, which is not a fatal level. However, according to a study conducted by Remus Prăvălie, the thyroid cancer rate in the United States, as well as in other countries, did increase as the consequence of increasing exposure to Iodine-133. This impact is certainly not negligible when it comes to human health.
<Psychological harm>
Physical damage is not the only harm that nuclear weapons cause. Mental damage to residents is also very critical. Similar to the effects of typical wars, people who have lost their family members or friends during the nuclear strike would suffer from depression and stress. According to Sumihisa Honda et al., survivors who were within 2km from the hypocenter exhibited a significantly higher rate of “easy fatigability, feeling sick, anxiety, uneasiness and depression” than people who were within 3km from the hypocenter. This clearly shows the mental impact of a nuclear explosion, which could be long-lasting. The study also highlights the significance of these effects. People with a higher rate of mental damage were more likely to have physical damages such as diarrhea, trauma, and anemia.
Writer: Amy Jeong
