Hi, my name is Roman Sandoz, I'm a 5^th year medical student from Zürich, Switzerland and I will participate in the BAN Tour 2010 next summer. I’m the Swiss IPPNW National Student Representative and responsible for the student part of the IPPNW World Congress 2010 in Basel (August 25^th – 30^th). The pre-congress bike-tour is the opening to a hopefully great and memorable World Congress, both of which should raise awareness in politics and the general population that worldwide, students and doctors alike, write a prescription for securing our survival – the abolition of nuclear weapons.

My first contact with IPPNW was at the European Student Congress in Porto almost 3 years ago. This congress and the street action Target X with students from all over Europe and speakers from all over the world made a lasting impression on me.

Talking to the public about nuclear weapons shows that for most people they are a relic of the past and not something worth worrying much about at present or in the future. Few people know about the total number of over 20’000 nuclear warheads that still exist, several thousands of them armed on missiles that can be launched within minutes at the whim of a handful of people. The use of nukes in Hiroshima and Nagasaki proved that these weapons of mass destruction must never be used again. Nevertheless “civilized” countries keep on researching smaller and more powerful nuclear weapons, more countries (North Korea, Iran) want to acquire them for reasons of deterrence or a show of power. Never since the second world war have we been closer to a renewed deployment of nuclear weapons, be it on purpose (for example in the Indian-Pakistan conflict) or by accident or terrorism. A small scale nuclear war would not only have catastrophic consequences for the local population, but endanger the health worldwide, bringing a nuclear winter and climate change for the whole planet.

As a future doctor I know that hardly anything apart from palliative care can be done to help victims of an atomic bombing, since the irradiation brings irreparable damage to one’s genes. Up to the present day people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki suffer from the consequences of the bombing in 1945, caring for the last survivors of the A-bomb and the affected children they gave birth to. Prevention is the only solution we have - so let’s start with the massive destruction of these weapons, before they’re used as weapons of mass destruction ever again – for us, for the next generations, for a future!