This post is from May 2010. Facts and links may have changed since. See more from that month

Article1 min read

Death by Number

Courtesy of Milton Leitenberg’s research (“The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy of Bio-Terrorism” in the NONPROLIFERATION REVIEW, 16:1 (March 2009):

Annual deaths in the United States due to cancer: 565,000

Annual deaths in the United States due to tobacco: 440,000

Annual deaths in the United States due to obesity: 400,000

Annual deaths in the United States due to hospital infections: 99,000

Cumulative, global deaths due to bioterrorism: 5

I would add:

Cumulative, global deaths unrelated to Hiroshima and Nagasaki due to battlefield use of nuclear weapons: 0

Of course, the last two numbers could increase radically at any time. But they are strikingly low and incomprehensible, according to most of the literature on bioterrorism and nuclear dangers.

Michael Krepon

Writing on ACW 2009–2022

Michael Krepon is the co-founder of the Stimson Center and the author of Winning and Losing the Nuclear Peace: The Rise, Demise, and Revival of Arms Control. He was given a lifetime achievement award for non-governmental work to reduce nuclear dangers by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in 2015. He has worked in the executive and legislative branches of the U.S. Government, and taught as a professor of practice at the University of Virginia.

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