Human Health

The U.S.-India Nuclear Deal Endangers Human Life and Health

A regional nuclear war in South Asia would kill over 1 billion people globally

A new paper presented by Dr. Ira Helfand at the Royal Society of Medicine in October 2007, based on new climate research conducted by Professors O. B. Toon of the University of Colorado and Alan Robock of Rutgers University, predicts a “a total global death toll in excess of one billion from starvation alone” and that “a global famine on the scale anticipated would provide the ideal breeding ground for epidemics involving…cholera, malaria, smallpox and dysentery.” These billion lives lost globally from famine and disease would be in addition to the local effects of the use of fifty to one hundred nuclear weapons, likely to have a death toll well into the millions in India and Pakistan.

India’s peaceful nuclear program has negative medical and public health consequences

In new research presented by Dr. Shakeel Ur Rahman at the Royal Society of Medicine in October 2007, the health status of indigenous people around the Jadugoda uranium mines were found to reflect greater incidence of:
• primary sterility,
• children with congenital deformities, and
• cancer as a cause of death;
as well as lower life expectancy and more people dying young.

Doctors oppose the U.S.-India nuclear deal

Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), Indian Doctors for Peace and Development (IDPD), and the global federation of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) issued a joint statement opposing the U.S.-India nuclear deal in September 2007.