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11 Health Effects of Nuclear Weapons
As if that were not enough, the nature of the incident itself and the location of the
fallout plume might make it difficult to bring food and other supplies into the city.
If, for example, if the plume were to contaminate major highways, port facilities,
or airports then it might be impossible to feed the city until the contamination can
be removed or decays to levels that would permit use of the roads and facilities.
This might be a matter of days, or it might require several weeks depending on the
radiation levels and the willingness of drivers and workers to work in various levels
of radiation. In addition, drivers need to be willing to drive into these areas; during
the author’s work in the vicinity of the Fukushima nuclear reactors the group was
told that food and other necessities were in short supply due to the unwillingness of
truck drivers to enter the area.
11.5 Long-Term Considerations
Survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have been tracked for nearly eight decades now;
their health has been monitored, as has the health of their children to try to learn what
we can of the effects of the nuclear attack on their health over the decades. These
studies have shown, among other things, that:
• Some cancers increased among survivors
– But have not been seen among their children
• Non-cancer effects have been noted as well, including
– Cataracts
– Thyroid tumors (benign)
– Heart disease
– Stroke
• Inflammatory reactions
• But no genetic effects among survivors’ children.
A city that experiences a nuclear attack must also be prepared for these long-term
impacts, especially induced cancers, if only because cancer is a disease that is both
challenging to families and because of the cost of cancer treatment.
In addition, the nation that was attacked must be prepared to develop a registry and
to commence long-term tracking of the survivors as soon as practicable, beginning
with information that will make it possible to estimate the dose a person received (e.g.
their exact location, biological indicators such as lymphocyte counts and lymphocyte
depletion trajectories, chromosome aberrations, time until the onset of vomiting, and
so forth). With time, it will be possible to refine these dose estimates and to look
for correlations with the appearance of various symptoms and the time required for
them to occur.
Maintaining this registry as an on-going project, as the Japanese and Americans
have done with the Radiation Effects Research Foundation, will help to predict the
11 Health Effects of Nuclear Weapons
As if that were not enough, the nature of the incident itself and the location of the
fallout plume might make it difficult to bring food and other supplies into the city.
If, for example, if the plume were to contaminate major highways, port facilities,
or airports then it might be impossible to feed the city until the contamination can
be removed or decays to levels that would permit use of the roads and facilities.
This might be a matter of days, or it might require several weeks depending on the
radiation levels and the willingness of drivers and workers to work in various levels
of radiation. In addition, drivers need to be willing to drive into these areas; during
the author’s work in the vicinity of the Fukushima nuclear reactors the group was
told that food and other necessities were in short supply due to the unwillingness of
truck drivers to enter the area.
11.5 Long-Term Considerations
Survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have been tracked for nearly eight decades now;
their health has been monitored, as has the health of their children to try to learn what
we can of the effects of the nuclear attack on their health over the decades. These
studies have shown, among other things, that:
• Some cancers increased among survivors
– But have not been seen among their children
• Non-cancer effects have been noted as well, including
– Cataracts
– Thyroid tumors (benign)
– Heart disease
– Stroke
• Inflammatory reactions
• But no genetic effects among survivors’ children.
A city that experiences a nuclear attack must also be prepared for these long-term
impacts, especially induced cancers, if only because cancer is a disease that is both
challenging to families and because of the cost of cancer treatment.
In addition, the nation that was attacked must be prepared to develop a registry and
to commence long-term tracking of the survivors as soon as practicable, beginning
with information that will make it possible to estimate the dose a person received (e.g.
their exact location, biological indicators such as lymphocyte counts and lymphocyte
depletion trajectories, chromosome aberrations, time until the onset of vomiting, and
so forth). With time, it will be possible to refine these dose estimates and to look
for correlations with the appearance of various symptoms and the time required for
them to occur.
Maintaining this registry as an on-going project, as the Japanese and Americans
have done with the Radiation Effects Research Foundation, will help to predict the