Study of Effects of Nuclear War on Civilian Populations

["Dr. Subroto Roy" <sroy@vgsom.iitkgp.ernet.in>]

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Please find enclosed the only study done of the possible effects of a =
nuclear explosion on an Indian or Pakistani city.   This may be of =
interest to the scientific community and ordinary citizens of both our =

countrry and our adversary.   It is done by Dr. M. V. Ramana of MIT who
=
is presently with the Center for Energy and Environmental Studies at =
Princeton University.   He is also with the International Physicians for
=
the Prevention of Nuclear War.    In  email correspondence, Dr Ramana =
writes as follows, which speaks for itself:
=20
Dear Dr. Roy:  Thank you for your message. I have not done any studies =

for other cities but one of the purposes of describing the methodology =

of such calculations in my paper was so that others, who are more =
familiar with other cities, could do similar calculations. If you know =

of anyone interested in doing that, I will be happy to help him or her.
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I also have made some changes to my paper and it is due to come out next
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month (or early August) as an IPPNW (International Physicians for the =
Prevention of Nuclear War) report finally. If you send me your mailing =

address, I will mail you a copy.=20
=20
Regarding civil defence, by and large, they are mostly ineffective. One
=
could save some people from blast effects and radiation if one were to =

construct special underground shelters. But if they are within the fire
=
zone, chances are that the temperature will be high enough to kill them
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from asphyxiation and CO poisoning. Further, it is virtually impossible
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to construct enough shelters for even a large fraction of the population
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of Bombay or Calcutta. Neither would there be warning time for people to
=
go from where they are into one of these shelters. So, my opinion is =
that civil defence does not have any significant impacts."
=20
I have asked him for an easily accessible website from where his study =

may be downloaded generally.  =20




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