Tennesseans advised not to take iodide
U.S. and online retailers report that customers are stripping their supplies of potassium iodide, which is being distributed in Japan near the damaged nuclear plants.
But Tennessee medical and emergency preparedness experts said Wednesday that Tennesseans don't need to fear radiation from Japan's damaged plants and should not take iodide, even if they have travel plans to the Pacific or Asia.
"There is no reason anyone in Tennessee would need to take it," said Dr. Alvin C. Powers, an endocrinologist at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Taking the concentrated iodide can cause harmful side effects, particularly in those with thyroid problems, which many people may not know they have.
John Dunn of the Tennessee Department of Health says Tennessee has a plan in the event of radiation exposure from a Tennessee nuclear facility. Part of that is distributing potassium iodide immediately to everyone within five miles of TVA's Sequoyah and Watts Bar nuclear reactors.
The state has 400,000 doses of iodide, more than enough for those living near the Sequoyah and Watts Bar plants, Jeremy Heidt of the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency said Wednesday. They would be distributed at mass shelters if residents within 10 miles of the plants were evacuated, he said
Residents within 10 miles of the plants also can get iodide to keep at home. Only about 200 had taken advantage of that offer before Japan's crisis. But officials at the Sequoyah Health Center in Soddy-Daisy said Wednesday that people have been filing in this week to get the pills.
A nuclear explosion or accident releases different radioactive materials, in-cluding radioactive iodine. That isotope can be ab-sorbed and concentrated by the human thyroid gland, causing cancer. Potassium iodide fills the thyroid gland so it can't absorb the radioactive iodine.
Dunn stressed that people should not self-dose. "If a radiation event were to occur in Tennessee, additional instructions will be given to persons in the affected area about taking potassium iodide and other measures to protect themselves," he said.
Travelers don't need it
People traveling closer to Japan, such as to Hawaii or the West Coast, don't need to worry or take the iodide either, Powers said. The iodide is only needed for those within a few miles of the plants in Japan.
"I want to emphasize that this is not an anti-radiation pill," he said, noting that a nuclear plant release spews radioactive elements other than iodine that affect more organs.
The U.S. Surgeon General's office on Wednesday clarified a statement Tuesday on stocking up on iodide pills. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin told a reporter in San Francisco that she wasn't aware of people stocking up but did not think it was an overreaction.
On Wednesday, her spokeswoman said Benjamin meant that it is always important to be prepared for disasters, but she wouldn't recommend that anyone go out and purchase the iodide at this time.
