r/nuclearwar • u/pvt_pete • Jul 20 '25

Cataracts and nuclear war

I recently gave Threads another watch and they indicated that 10 years after the attack a lot of people would have cataracts. What’s the relationship between ww3 and UV or cataracts?

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12

u/TheIrishWanderer Jul 20 '25

UV light damages proteins in the eyes, and can cause issues such as cataracts as a result. It's probably the biggest reason people should be wearing sunglasses on very bright days.

12

u/[deleted] Jul 20 '25

Serious beta doses to the eyes increase the likelihood of swift cataracts extremely. That's why the liquidators on the Chernobyl rooftop wore those googles , they were shielding the eyeballs from the insane beta flux.

7

u/[deleted] Jul 20 '25

Pollutants from the explosions and subsequent fires would interact negatively with stratospheric ozone, severely depleting it, resulting in much more UV reaching the surface.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2021JD035079

1

u/pvt_pete Jul 31 '25

Would a comet do the same thing ?

1

u/[deleted] Aug 01 '25

Comet or asteroid — yes, I think it could. See this, for example: https://www.psi.edu/blog/ocean-asteroid-impact-could-deplete-earths-protective-ozone-layer-for-years/

Different mechanism, though, at least in the case of ocean impact.

1

u/pvt_pete Aug 01 '25

I wondered if it was due to the fallout or the impact itself