TUCSON, Ariz., Sept. 20, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In today’s increasingly tense world, the eventual use of widely proliferated nuclear weapons is likely if not inevitable, some believe. In the fall issue of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, Shane Connor writes: “While there is little that individuals can do to thwart international nuclear weapons use, we can do a surprising amount locally to minimize nuclear explosions’ horrendous effects in our communities.”
Connor explains that between the bright flash of a nuclear detonation and the arrival of the blast wave, persons outside the lethal zone have from a few seconds to a minute or more to take cover. Diving under a desk or seat protects a person from flying shards of glass. Simply lying prone in the open can drastically reduce the number of blast fatalities.
Connor reviews the history of atomic bomb survivors, including nine who lived through both blasts. Tsutomu Yamaguchi, age 29 in 1945, was a Mitsubishi ship designer who died in 2010 at age 93. His advice to “duck and cover” saved many of his colleagues at company headquarters in Nagasaki when the second bomb hit.
The same tactic saved schoolchildren in Russia when a meteor hit in Chelyabinsk.
Basic knowledge could also save many lives in the event of radioactive fallout, Connor writes.
Connor is the owner of ki4u.com, a Texas company that offers radiation monitoring equipment, including calibrated instruments that the federal government discarded when the Cold War civil defense program was terminated.
The Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons is published by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), a national organization representing physicians in all specialties since 1943.
Contact: Shane Connor, webmaster@ki4u.com, or Jane M. Orient, M.D., (520) 323-3110, janeorientmd@gmail.com
