The medical consequences of radiation accidents and nuclear war. Health Policy Committee, American College of Physicians.

THE EXISTENCE OF fissionable materials raises the specter of radiation accidents. Partial nuclear reactor core meltdowns have occurred already; the accident at Three Mile Island in 1979 was the fourth such episode to have occurred in America since 1952. Further, “significant release” episodes have taken place in five states, and the potential exists for radiation accidents during storage, transportation, and reprocessing as well as for radioactivity release in weapons accidents and during all stages of the nuclear fuel cycle. As awareness of the threats posed by nuclear materials has grown in the general population, there has been a corresponding awareness in the medical community of the medical problems that would exist as a result of radiation accidents. And the profession is beginning to realize-and to seek to correct-its inability to respond effectively to the medical consequences of radiation accidents. This growing sensitivity to radiation accidents and their medical consequences has prompted a corresponding sensitivity to the nuclear arms race, the threat of nuclear war, and the medical consequnces of a war involving nuclear weapons. Many physicians, after studying the probable effects of a nuclear war, agree with Howard Hiatt, M.D., F.A.C.P., dean of the Harvard School of Public Health, that nuclear war is “the greatest public health hazard of all time.” As such, its prevention is imperative.