1. In accordance with their respective agreements with the United Nations, the International Atomic Energy Agency and the World Health Organization immediately inform the United Nations of the terms of this agreement. This agreement enters into force with the approval of the General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency and the World Health Assembly. Under the agreement, if one of the two organizations wants to do something that the other might have an interest in, “consult with the other organization to resolve the issue by mutual agreement.” Both agencies must “provide comprehensive information on all activities envisaged and on all work programmes that may be of interest to both parties.” And in the field of statistics, a key area of the epidemiology of nuclear risk, they pledge to “work together on the most effective use of information, resources and technical personnel in the field of statistics and on all statistical projects that deal with issues of common interest.” Recently, the World Health Organization (WHO) was asked by several journalists and others about its relationship with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). It was feared that WHO could not act independently on exposure to radioactive substances and human health, as it was bound by the 1959 agreement between the two agencies. This concern is unfounded. 2. After this agreement enters into force, it is submitted to the Secretary-General of the United Nations for presentation and registration in accordance with the applicable provisions of the United Nations. But what does the WHO say when asked about this agreement and its independence? On its February 2001 website, it states: “This commitment does not imply the submission of one of the organizations to the authority of others, which calls into question their independence and responsibility within the framework of their respective constitutional mandates.” British radiation biologist Keith Baverstock is a new victim of the agreement and way of thinking he created within WHO. From 1991 to 2003, he was a radiologist and regional advisor in the WHO Office of the European Union when he was dismissed after expressing to his leaders the fear that new epidemiological evidence of nuclear veterans and soldiers exposed to depleted uranium would suggest that current models of nuclear radiation risk underestimated the real dangers.

On 28 May 1959, the World Health Organization (WHO) signed the agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), known as WHA12-40.