Dear HIFA colleagues,
HIFA Steering Group member Chris Zielinski has coordinated a multi-journal paper on nuclear weapons. Below are a few extracts and a comment from me. The full text is freely available here: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.r881
Editorials. Ending nuclear weapons, before they end us
BMJ 2025; 389 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.r881 (Published 13 May 2025)
Kamran Abbasi et al.
WHO’s mandate to provide evidence on health effects must be restored
In May 2025 the World Health Assembly (WHA) will vote on re-establishing a mandate for the World Health Organization (WHO) to address the health consequences of nuclear weapons and war.1 Health professionals and their associations should urge their governments to support such a mandate and support the new UN comprehensive study on the effects of nuclear war...
An estimated 2100 nuclear warheads in France, Russia, UK, US, and, for the first time, in China, are on high alert, ready for launch within minutes...
Our joint editorial in 2023 on reducing the risks of nuclear war and the role of health professionals, published in over 150 health journals worldwide, urged three immediate steps by nuclear armed states and their allies: adopt a “no first use” policy, take their nuclear weapons off hair trigger alert, and pledge unequivocally that they will not use nuclear weapons in any current conflicts they are involved in. We also urged nuclear armed states to work for a definitive end to the nuclear threat by urgently starting negotiations for a verifiable, timebound agreement to eliminate their nuclear arsenals, and called on all nations to join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
It is an alarming failure of leadership that no progress has been made on these needed measures, nor on many other feasible steps away from the brink, acting on the obligation of all states to achieve nuclear disarmament. Nine states jeopardise all humanity and the biosphere by claiming an exclusive right to wield the most destructive and inhumane weapons ever created. The world desperately needs the leaders of these states to freeze their arsenals, end the modernisation and development of new, more dangerous nuclear weapons, and ensure that new technology such as artificial intelligence can never trigger the launch of nuclear weapons...
This article is being co-published with other journals. A full list of participating journals is available at https://www.bmj.com/content/full-list-authors-and-signatories-nuclear-ri...
COMMENT (NPW): I would add that it is critical to raise awareness and understanding about the health impact of nuclear war, among the general population and among policymakers. I do not know if anyone has attempted to measure such awareness and understanding, but I suspect that only a tiny percentage of the world's population are even aware that this is an issue. Even if they do, most of us are in a state of denial and hardly anyone has a deep a understanding of what a nuclear war would mean in practice.
Congratulations to Chris and co-authors.
Best wishes, Neil
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org