Chernobyl: The Final Warning

by Robert Peter Gale, Thomas Hauser

On April 26, 1986 the event considered the worst nuclear disaster in history occurred in Chernobyl, Ukraine. While a number of deaths occurred at the time, the long-term effects of radiation were the greater concern. In the wake of the Chernobyl disaster, Dr. Gale, an expert on bone marrow transplantation, was summoned to Moscow by Mikhail Gorbachev, then General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, to help by leading a team of international and local physicians in treating the victims. Despite volunteering to travel to the other side of the world to help aide victims and the team, Gale and the other members of the US-Israeli team had to work under the severe restrictions placed upon them. In the Final Warning, the doctor discusses the tragedy, the diseases it would ultimately trigger, the environmental damage caused on a global scale and hope for a safer world. This book was adapted into a well-known and popular movie starring Jon Voight and Jason Robards. NEW! Afterward written in 2020, 34 years after the Chernobyl disaster. "As a subject for a book, the Chernobyl disaster is a daunting challenge comprised of many smaller dramas – the drama of the first night’s fight, the drama of the medical struggle, the drama of scientists battling the reactor with their minds while miners and helicopter pilots battled it with their bodies, the drama of a continent befouled and its population enraged, confused, afraid. Few people are better situated to bring to life the drama than Robert Peter Gale. He was the right man at the right time. Now he comes to us with Final Warning, co-written with Thomas Hauser. Part primer, part memoir, part position paper on nuclear power and nuclear war, it is an ambitious project." New York Times "Hauser’s contribution is in simplifying the intricacies of nuclear power for the general reader, while Gale supplies the drama of the struggle to save lives. What emerges is a gripping memoir, a story of man’s battle for survival, cutting through the murky depths of natural bureaucratic sluggishness. With its immediacy of reporting and strong cautionary message, this compelling account deserves a wide and attentive audience. Kirkus Review Robert Peter Gale, MD, is an American physician and medical researcher. He is known for research in leukemia and other bone marrow disorders. From 1986–1993, Gale was President of the Armand Hammer Center for Advanced Studies in Nuclear Energy and Health, a foundation supporting research on medical aspects of nuclear issues, and from 1985–1990 Gale was the Wald Scholar in Biomedical Communications at UCLA. It was during this time that Gale volunteered his expertise in bone marrow transplants to the USSR, for the victims of radiation poisoning incurred during the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Since then he has volunteered his expertise at other disasters including Fukushima after the earthquake and tsunami of 2011. His many awards for his scientific achievements include the Presidential Award from the New York Academy of Sciences. He has also received several awards for his humanitarian activities around the world including his work with victims of Chernobyl. Dr. Gale retired from the UCLA faculty in 1993 but remained on Medical Staff until 2019. He's currently a Visiting Professor at the Haematology Research Division of Experimental Medicine, Imperial College London. Thomas C. Hauser is an attorney and well-known author with over 50 published fiction and nonfiction books. His ability to explain and bring to life events of complexity and importance has secured his reputation as a responsible and reliable social critic.

356 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 25, 2020