The World Health Organization released an updated report Friday detailing the medications governments should have on hand in the event of a radiological or nuclear emergency.
Governments should have a national stockpile of personal protective equipment, but also a range of pharmaceuticals, including potassium iodide tablets, antiemetics, antidiarrheals, depurants, alkylating agents and other medications, the WHO said.
“It is essential that governments are prepared to protect the health of populations and respond immediately to emergencies,” said Dr. Maria Neira, the acting assistant director-general at the WHO, said in a statement on Friday. “This includes having ready supplies of life-saving medicines that will reduce risks and treat injuries from radiation.”
Marcin Rossak, a local firefighter opens a box of iodine tablets in Milanowek Fire Station, one of the distribution points, in Milanowek, Poland on October 10, 2022.
(Artur Widak/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Radiological disasters can result from an accident at a nuclear power plant or the intentional detonation of a nuclear bomb in armed conflict.
The WHO did not name any specific conflict, but the threat of a radiological disaster has become apparent worldwide in the past year amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said this month that his agency is establishing a “permanent presence of nuclear safety and security experts” at Ukraine’s nuclear facilities to “help prevent a nuclear accident during the prevent current military conflict.”
Russian officials have also repeatedly reminded the world that it has weapons of mass destruction, with Putin ally Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, saying last week that the “loss of a nuclear force in a conventional war would be the beginning of a nuclear war.”
A Russian serviceman patrols the area of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Energodar on May 1, 2022.
(ANDREY BORODULIN/AFP via Getty Images)
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The WHO’s report on Friday updates a list from 2007, and the organization said more new treatments could be on the way.
“Research is making progress in developing new treatments and achieving technical advances that could lead to new products for use during a radiation emergency,” the report said.
