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OPINION
DOCTORS Lounge
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in the world . In early August , when nuclear swords were brandished , he started rapid construction of another bunker in Seattle . He also advised that the safest places in the fall of 2017 would be Africa and Russia . Luxury bunkers offer DNA storage , comms centers , even pools and gyms , plus the requisite decontamination rooms , air purifiers , and of course , the bulletproof hatch .
The Cold War bunker one can visit in old East Berlin had rudimentary sleeping shelves , a blood pressure cuff , gas masks and Geiger counters . The citizens were told it would hold 5,000 ; in reality it had a capacity of 184 .
Because of the rate of radioactive decay , most of these survival sites recommend supplies for at least two weeks underground . They recommend weaponry , water , batteries ( rooms full , all kinds ), MREs , medical kits , and potassium iodide . Here , I hear the voice of Dr . Nelson Watts , Prof Emeritus of Endocrinology at Emory : “ Potassium iodide only protects the thyroid . These dooms-dayers think it will save them , but it won ’ t .”
There are some grains of hope , providing that attacks are limited and no nuclear winter results . Dr . Bertrand Jordan , a French scientist , in the August 2016 Genetics reported Hiroshima survivor data from 1958-1998 . The data from Hiroshima survivors – who can place how far they were from the death zone – has helped scientists calculate radiation risks for , and set exposure limits for , all who work around x-rays . Survivors ’ cancer rates were directly linked to the extent of their radiation exposure . Those exposed to 1 Gray ( about 1,000 times higher a dose than is safe for a human ) had a 44 percent greater risk of cancers , but average lifetimes were only shortened about 1.5 years . So far , no differences in health or mutation risks have been found in the children of the survivors , though Dr . Jordan would like to do more detailed genome studies over many years .
It may lessen your anxiety , as it did for me in 1962 , to plan your basement stash . I believe , as always , prevention is the best medicine . But what I have in mind is not a hoard of peanut butter . What I want is to force all those who hold the nuclear codes in their hands to watch the 1984 British movie “ Threads .” That movie , shot in Sheffield , follows a couple of families through many years post-nuclear attack . They are burned to death in front of you , crushed in front of you , they bleed to death in front of you ; later they kill each other over rats . It ’ s the stuff of nuclear nightmare .
That ’ s the best reality check I know : seeing is believing .
Dr . Barry practices Internal Medicine with Norton Community Medical Associates-Barret . She is a clinical associate professor at the University of Louisville School of Medicine , Department of Medicine .
Brenda Wallace , CPA , CMPE 800.880.7800 ext . 1347 bwallace @ hsccpa . com
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