January 22nd 2021: Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons enters into force

摘要

The prospect of the conning into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) on 22 January 2021 inspired us to look back at articles on nuclear weapons that have appeared in this journal during its lifetime. Over the 35 years spanning Medicine & War and Medicine, Conflict & Survival (the name changed in 1997), 176 pieces easily identifiable as on the subject were published, as well as multiple book reviews. These items include articles, commentaries, editorials and conference reports, particularly on the health consequences and indiscriminate nature of these weapons and the role of health workers in preventing their production and use. The activities and advocacy of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) and its 61 affiliates, including Medact, appear often. There are far too many authors to give individual credit to, but in 1985 the first issue of Medicine & War included an article by the then editor of the Lancet, Ian Monroe The nuclear threat: When it hurts to think in which he claims the doctor's right and obligation to speak out against nuclear weapons. Three other papers in that issue were on the subject and another, by Joseph Rotblat the only scientist to leave the Manhattan Project on moral grounds, was on The Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs which seek 'a world free of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction'.