[iwar] [fc:After.Sept..11,.a.new.push.for.`nuclear.pills'.Associated.Press]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2001-10-25 18:16:42

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From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net>
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Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2001 18:16:42 -0700 (PDT)
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Subject: [iwar] [fc:After.Sept..11,.a.new.push.for.`nuclear.pills'.Associated.Press]
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After Sept. 11, a new push for `nuclear pills' Associated Press 
AP, 10/24/2001
<a href="http://elp.pennnet.com/News/Display_News_Story.cfm?Section=WireNews&SubSection=HOME&NewsID=34034">http://elp.pennnet.com/News/Display_News_Story.cfm?Section=WireNews&SubSection=HOME&NewsID=34034>

Mary Lampert keeps a single potassium iodide pill in her medicine
cabinet and another in the glove compartment of her car. When you live
seven miles from a nuclear plant, she says, you can't be too safe. 
Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, people who live near nuclear
plants have been buying the pills, which can help protect against cancer
from radiation exposure. 
``The terrorist doesn't make an announcement ahead of time, `We are
going to attack the nuclear power plant,''' said Lampert, who lives in
Duxbury, across Kingston Bay from the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in
Plymouth. ``How long would it take the radioactive iodine to make it
across to my house? In less than an hour, it's here.'' 
Such fears are sending sales of potassium iodide through the roof at the
Starke, Fla.-based American Civil Defense Association, which sells
bottles of 200 tablets at $19.95 each. Before Sept. 11, sales topped 15
bottles in a good month. Since then, more than 500 bottles have been
sold. 
``That is our No. 1 item. We can't hardly keep it in,'' said spokesman
Alex Coleman. 
Iodine is one of about 200 radioactive elements created when the uranium
atom splits, as occurs in a nuclear reactor. 
Potassium iodide, if taken shortly after exposure to radiation, blocks
the thyroid gland's intake of radioactive iodine, providing some
protection against thyroid cancer and certain other diseases. 
It proved effective in preventing thyroid cancer among adults and
children in the path of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster. 
However, officials in Massachusetts and other states worry that
stockpiling the pills would make people less likely to evacuate in the
event of a nuclear accident. 
Also, potassium iodide will not protect people from radiation burns,
radiation sickness and other forms of cancer in a nuclear accident. 
``The public tends to look at potassium iodide as the magic bullet to
protect them, but that's really not what it is,'' said Dr. Kenneth
Miller, professor of radiology and director of health physics at the
Penn State Hershey Medical Center in Pennsylvania. He lives 61/2 miles
from the Three Mile Island plant, the site in 1979 of the nation's worst
commercial nuclear accident. 
Still, momentum for distribution of the tiny white pills seems to be
building. 
In January, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission adopted a rule that
encourages states to consider giving out potassium iodide as part of
their nuclear accident strategy. 
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which has until now left it to
states to decide whether to stockpile the pills, is holding a meeting
this week with representatives of 16 other federal agencies to begin
drafting a new potassium iodide policy. 
Last month, a group of North Carolina elected officials in three
counties asked the owner of the Shearon Harris nuclear plant to
distribute the pills to neighbors. 
And Tuesday, a bill to require Massachusetts health officials to make
potassium iodide pills available to people living or working within 10
miles of nuclear plants passed a key legislative committee. 
``All one would have to imagine is a plane crashing into that reactor,''
said state Rep. John Binienda, chairman of the Joint Energy Committee,
which approved the bill. ``You don't have to be a rocket scientist to
know what the end result would be.'' 
The bill would apply to more than 300,000 people who live or work near
Pilgrim Station, Seabrook Station in Seabrook, N.H., or Vermont Yankee
in Vernon, Vt., or are on Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard,
which are downwind from the Plymouth plant. 
Massachusetts already stockpiles potassium iodide for emergency workers
as well as prisoners, nursing home patients and other institutionalized
people. 
On the Net: 
American Civil Defense Association: http://www.tacda.org 

Massachusetts Coalition to Stockpile KI: http://www.gotKI.com

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