Effects of nuclear explosions on human health
The medical effects of the atomic bomb upon humans can be put into the four categories below, with the effects of larger thermonuclear weapons producing blast and thermal effects so large that there would be a negligible number of survivors close enough to the center of the blast who would experience prompt/acute radiation effects, which were observed after the 16 kiloton yield Hiroshima bomb, due to its relatively low yield:[1][2] Depending on whether individuals further afield shelter in place or evacuate perpendicular to the direction of the wind, and therefore avoid contact with the fallout plume, and stay there for the days and weeks after the nuclear explosion, their exposure to fallout, and therefore their total dose, will vary.
[3][4] Staying indoors until after the most hazardous fallout isotope, I-131 decays away to 0.1% of its initial quantity after ten half-lives – which is represented by 80 days in the care of I-131 cases, would make the difference between likely contracting thyroid cancer or escaping completely from this substance depending on the actions of the individual.
The climatology hypothesis is that if each city firestorms, a great deal of soot could be thrown up into the atmosphere which could blanket the earth, cutting out sunlight for years on end, causing the disruption of food chains, in what is termed a nuclear winter scenario.
[5][6] The main causes of death and disablement in this state are thermal burns and the failure of structures resulting from the blast effect.
[10] The "prodromal syndrome" is not a diagnosis, but the technical term used by health professionals to describe a specific group of symptoms that may precede the onset of an illness.
[10] The exposure to 4.5 Gray of penetrating gamma rays has many effects that occur at different times: In 24 hours:[10] These will usually abate after 6–7 days.
The principal site of damage is the germinal layer, and often the initial response is erythema (reddening) due to blood vessels congestion and edema.
[10] Exposure to even relatively low doses of radiation generates genetic damage in the progeny of irradiated rodents.
[12] No statistically demonstrable increase of congenital malformations was found among the later conceived children born to survivors of the Nuclear weapons at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
[13][14][15] The surviving women of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, that could conceive, who were exposed to substantial amounts of radiation, went on and had children with no higher incidence of abnormalities than the Japanese average.
[16][17] It was assumed in the 1983 book Medical Consequences of Radiation Following a Global Nuclear War that, although not caused by radiation, one of the long-term effects of a nuclear war would be a massive increase in infectious diseases caused by fecal matter contaminated water from untreated sewage, crowded living conditions, poor standard of living, and lack of vaccines in the aftermath of a nuclear war, with the following list of diseases being cited:[7]
[19][20] Epidemics seldom occur after a disaster, and dead bodies do not lead to catastrophic outbreaks of infectious diseases.
However, as noted by de Goyet, epidemics seldom occur after disasters, and unless deaths are caused by one of a small number of infectious diseases such as smallpox, typhus, or plague, exposure to dead bodies does not cause disease ... Cholera and typhoid seldom pose a major health threat after disasters unless they are already endemic.
