Nuclear
Weapons
MAPW works for the abolition of nuclear weapons.
Abolition: A Medical Imperative
The global campaign for a nuclear ban treaty – the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) – was initiated in Australia by MAPW.
There could be no meaningful medical response to any use of nuclear weapons. The only ethical course of action is to work for prevention through the prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons.
MAPW launched the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) in 2007. In 2017, the United Nations adopted the TPNW and ICAN was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In January 2021, the TPNW entered into force, becoming international law.
Taking Action
By amplifying the medical imperative to abolish nuclear weapons, and unifying trusted medical voices, we can encourage action on the TPNW.
Most Australians want our country to ratify the treaty, and the Albanese Labor government has committed to signing – subject to some conditions.
But with the nuclear threat growing, there’s no time to waste: making swift and meaningful progress towards eliminating nuclear weapons is crucial for Australia’s security, and for the security of people everywhere.
Responsible Investment
Policy Statements
MAPW works with health and medical organisations like colleges, associations, faculties, and unions to help them adopt positions and policies on nuclear weapons. By adopting clear policies, organisations help build momentum.
Worldwide, medical, health, and humanitarian federations and institutions continue to accept the medical evidence for the elimination of nuclear weapons, and to endorse the TPNW.
News: Nuclear Weapons
US attacks on Iran: Illegal, Reckless, Destabilising.
MAPW condemns US, Israel attacks on Iran.
Read MoreIsrael Attacks Raise Nuclear Risks, Reveal Fallacies
Far from reducing any nuclear weapons risks in the Middle East, Israel's illegal attacks on Iran have increased them.
Read MoreFrance Must Pay Its Dues to the Pacific
MAPW endorses Pacific civil society organisations' demand France show accountability for harms of nuclear tests.
Read MoreWHA Adopts Resolution on Nuclear Weapons
WHA member states have supported an historic resolution on nuclear war and public health.
Read More131 Medical Journals issue Joint Editorial on Nuclear Weapons
Medical Journal of Australia, ANMJ and 131 other journals have issued a joint editorial calling for a renewed WHO mandate.
Read MoreNo, Australia does not need nuclear weapons
Our members respond to Clive Hamilton's flawed assumptions about nuclear weapons.
Read MoreIPPNW Statement to NPT PrepCom
Our global federation's statement to Third Preparatory Committee for the 2026 Review Conference of the Parties to the NPT.
Read MoreNobel Laureates call on Trump, Putin to Negotiate on Nuclear Weapons
Our global federation calls on US and Russian Presidents to engage in meaningful negotiations for nuclear disarmament.
Read MoreAustralia: take every measure for the NPT
With the NPT on shaky ground, MAPW urges our government to stand firm on nuclear non-proliferation.
Read MoreCalls for new WHO reports on nuclear weapons and health
Pacific Island states are leading efforts to renew WHO’s mandate on nuclear weapons' threat to global health.
Read MoreIn 2018, Australian peak health and medical organisations – representing hundreds of thousands of members – signed MAPW’s call for Australia to commit to signing the TPNW:
- Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF)
- Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA). Read the position statement.
- Rehabilitation Medicine Society of Australia and New Zealand (RMSANZ)
- Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP)
- Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM)
- North Sydney Health Network
- Psychologists for Peace
- Doctors for the Environment Australia
The Australian Medical Association has also called on the Australian government to sign the TPNW. Read the AMA statement.
In 2021, the following organisations – together representing over 500 000 medical and other health professionals – endorsed MAPW’s call for recognition of the medical and public health imperative to abolish nuclear weapons:
- Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF)
- Australian College of Nursing
- Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA)
- Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP)
- Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM)
- Psychologists for Peace
- Doctors for the Environment Australia
- Australian Ethical Health Alliance
- Women’s Healthcare Australasia
- Australian Indian Medical Association (WA)
- Academy of Child and Adolescent Health
In 2022 the Victorian Psychologists Association (VPA) and the Medical Scientists Association of Victoria unanimously adopted resolutions calling for ratification of the TPNW.
World Medical Association
The WMA has recognised the duty of physicians to advocate for the elimination of nuclear weapons, and endorses the TPNW. Read the WMA statement on elimination.
International Council of Nurses
The ICN, representing nurse and midwife federations worldwide, has called for the elimination of nuclear weapons based on the evidence of their devastating effects on human and planetary health. Read the ICN’s joint statement.
World Federation of Public Health Associations
The WFPHA has been a powerful force for the TPNW, recognising that advocacy for the elimination of nuclear weapons is consistent with the Global Charter for the Public’s Health—protection, prevention and promotion. Read more on the WFPH and nuclear abolition.
Health + Medical Endorsement
Health and Medical organisations around the world continue to endorse the TPNW.
Evidence for Action
Banning and eliminating nuclear weapons is a global health priority.
Decades of evidence shows the catastrophic effect of nuclear weapons testing and use on people and the planet, as well as the inability of health systems to develop preparedness or capacity to provide assistance to the victims of a nuclear explosion.
The evidence of harm caused by the use and testing of nuclear weapons takes on a renewed importance as the risk nuclear weapons being used is on the increase.
Studies of nuclear test workers and exposed nearby communities around the world consistently show adverse health effects, especially increased risks of cancer.
The total number of global cancer deaths as a result of atmospheric nuclear test explosions has been estimated at between 2 million and 2.4 million, even though these studies used radiation risk estimates that are now dated and likely underestimated the risk.
Britain conducted 12 nuclear test explosions in Australia between 1952 and 1957, and hundreds of minor trials of radioactive and toxic materials for bomb development up to 1963. These caused untold health problems for local Aboriginal people who were at the highest risk of radiation.
More than 16,000 Australian workers were also exposed. A key government-funded study belatedly followed these veterans over an 18-year period from 1982. Despite the difficulties of conducting a study decades later with incomplete data, it found they had 23% higher rates of cancer and 18% more deaths from cancers than the general population.
Our Pacific island neighbours also continue to suffer the devastating consequences of nuclear testing.
The blast wave, thermal wave, radiation and radioactive fallout generated by nuclear explosions have devastating short- and long-term effects on the human body, and health services are not equipped to alleviate these effects in any significant way (WHO, 1987).
The United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDR) summarised the humanitarian effects of a single nuclear detonation in an urban area:
- Within the zone of blast, most people are killed or suffer horrific lifechanging injuries
- Hospitals in the blast zone and fallout zones are rendered unusable
- Surviving local hospitals are overwhelmed by large numbers of casualties with complex trauma
- Humanitarian relief is rendered impossible by destruction of electricity, transport, clean water and communication infrastructure
- Radioactive landscape provides a major hazard for relief efforts
- Psychosocial challenges include widespread grief and confusion
Read the UN Resolution on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons.
Read the ICAN report Unspeakable Suffering: The Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons
As well as creating hundreds of new radioactive elements that did not exist before, a nuclear explosion – and the operation of a nuclear reactor – both increase the total radioactivity from that of the starting material a million times or more.
Ionising radiation has significant effects on biology and human health, increasing cancer rates. New evidence points to these effects being greater than previously estimated. For example, an international study of over 308,000 radiation-monitored nuclear industry workers in France, the USA, and UK reported in 2015 strong evidence of positive associations between protracted low-dose radiation exposure and leukaemia.
In addition, radiation risk is not uniform across a population. It is highest in very young children and declines gradually with age. Infants are overall about four times as sensitive to radiation’s cancer-inducing effects as middle-aged adults.
Women are also disproportionally affected by ionising radiation.The UNIDR found that women are biologically more vulnerable to harmful health effects of ionising radiation than men, and that social effects of nuclear weapons are gendered.
Read an overview of the medical evidence and the impact of the TPNW in the New England Journal of Medicine.
A landmark report, Nuclear Famine (2022), published by our international federation, IPPNW, summarises the latest scientific work which shows that a so-called “limited” or “regional” nuclear war would be neither limited nor regional.
A war that detonated less than 1/20th of the world’s nuclear weapons would still crash the climate, the global food supply chains, and likely public order. Famines and unrest would kill hundreds of millions, perhaps even billions.
- Using less than 3% of the world’s nuclear weapons, a nuclear war between India and Pakistan could kill up to every 3rd person on earth, with average global temperatures dropping about 1.3 degrees Celsius.
- A full-scale nuclear war between the United States and Russia would kill an estimated 5 billion people worldwide within two years.
- The strongest caloric reductions due to abrupt cooling after a nuclear war are found over the high latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere. Nations such as Canada, Finland, Norway and Sweden are thus hit hard.
A March 2020 expert meeting of International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) examined the the preparedness and capacity of national and international organisations and health systems to provide assistance to the victims of a nuclear explosion.
The meeting found that: “No state or international body could address, in an appropriate manner, the immediate humanitarian emergency nor the long-term consequences of a nuclear weapon detonation in a populated area, nor provide appropriate assistance to those affected.”
Because of the likely effect of a nuclear blast on populations and infrastructure, the meeting also concluded that it would take several decades to reconstruct health-care facilities and services.
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