Correspondents' Correspondence Doctors on Nuclear War

...The BMA's undertaking, in fact, was prompted by a reassuringly worded government publication called Protect and Survive (echoing the title of a recent disarmament tract by E.P...

...Doctors on Nuclear War London The British Medical Association (BMA), that eminently respectable, cautious and conservative organization of physicians, has launched a detailed investigation of the likely physical effects of nuclear war...

...It promises to provide an effective antidote to the half truths being spread by government "information" departments...

...Thompson and Dan Smith called Protest and Survive...

...The doctors worry that the current Western stance on nuclear warfare is now sending the same message to the USSR...

...The assumptions underlying these requests, though, are at odds with the widely-accepted conclusion of the 1980 Pugwash Conference of doctors, attended by prominent members of the profession from North America, Western Europe and the Soviet Union: "There is no possible effective medical response after a nuclear attack...

...The government apparently is determined not to participate in an educational exercise of this kind, for the BMA has been told that much of the information it would like such as official calculations of the effects of blast and radiation, of probable mortality rates, delayed physical and psychological reactions, and so on is classified...

...Hence the global significance of the British Medical Association's initiative...

...According to the Association, this was only the latest salvo in a campaign to convince citizens that nuclear wars are survivable, even winnable...

...TheUN report estimates that a relatively small, one-megaton nuclear explosion over a medium sized city like Detroit, Manchester or Leningrad would immediately kill aminimum of500,000inhabitants, gravely injure 600,000 others, and cause radiation and burn injuries to a large proportion of the remaining population .The details of the UN study bear out the grim scenario put forward at the Pugwash Conference: "Most hospitals would be destroyed, most transportation, communication and energy systems would be inoperable, and most medical supplies unavailable...

...Sir John Stallworthy, chairman of the BMA's Board of Science, which is conducting the research project, calls it the most important task ever undertaken by the unit...

...the pamphlet informs readers that whitewashing their windows and wrapping their hands in their jackets will give them a measure of protection against the medical effects of atomic warfare...

...It was assumed that in a country like Britain densely populated and accommodating many military bases the survival of the bulk of the population could be assured only by peace...

...It could also help slow the arms race by reminding everyone that the unchanged realities of destructive nuclear power make the prevention of war the only sane course...

...As a result, most of those requiring medical attention would die...

...The Soviet Union's nationwide civil defense program is apparently based on equally unrealistic theories...

...Acting on similar findings in the 1960s, the government here dismantled its professional civil defense team and abandoned its strategy of permanent preparedness...

...Thomas Land...

...Western analysts contend that apart from the obvious role played by Soviet bomb shelter construction in distracting an unhappy populace from their domestic troubles, the program is a sign that the USSR believes it can emerge alive and victorious from a nuclear war...

...The BMA considers this optimism unwarranted in the light of the available evidence...

...The authorities are increasingly asking the medical profession to help in contingency planning for a nuclear conflict, a family practitioner told the recent annual BMA meeting, where the decision to conduct the inquiry was taken...

...He has promised not to suppress any findings out of a misplaced desire to avoid upsetting the public...

...The Thatcher government, in contrast, claims that more than 20 million Britons could live through the aftermath of even a full-scale nuclear assault, and that 15 million of them would still be healthy...

...Faced with this obstacle, the BMA may have to begin with the findings of an authoritative and impartial study recently published by the United Nations Center for Disarmament...

...One of the topics the doctors seek to explore is whether the civil defense policies of the British government and by implication those of other Western powers are of any real value...