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On KI: Westchester wants to stockpile KI
Hi all,
This article is typical of local and state thinking on the KI issue.
We at UNPLUG Salem and the Jersey Shore Nuclear Watch (Oyster Creek) want KI
distibuted to all year round households in the 10 mile zone. The NJ Dept of
Health is still considering what to do.
norm
mandj considine wrote:
> Westchester seeks to stockpile radiation medicine
>
> By DAVID MCKAY WILSON
> THE JOURNAL NEWS
> (Original publication: Nov. 18, 2001)
>
> Westchester County wants to set up a pilot project to make potassium iodide,
> a medication that can minimize the effects of exposure to radiation,
> available to residents if there is a severe accident at the Indian Point
> nuclear complex in Buchanan.
>
> But it remains uncertain whether New York state will join a federal program
> that would make the medication available here.
>
> "We are weighing the issue and awaiting guidance,''said Dennis Michalski,
> spokesman for the New York state Office of Emergency Management Services.
>
> The county's interest in the program comes as authorities at the Food and
> Drug Administration draw up protocols to make the medication available to
> the public through programs run by state agencies.
>
> The FDA became involved this year after the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
> revised its emergency preparedness regulations to allow communities to make
> potassium iodide available to the public as part of a response to a severe
> nuclear power plant accident.
>
> "The commission has found that potassium iodide can be a reasonable, prudent
> and inexpensive supplement to evacuation and sheltering for specific local
> conditions," the commission said last December.
>
> Congress has earmarked $800,000 to purchase the medication over two years.
> Yet to be decided is how the medication will be distributed and what dosage
> will be recommended, NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said.
>
> Michalski said the state was concerned that the NRC did not mandate that
> states include potassium iodide distribution in their emergency plans, but
> only gave them permission to distribute it if they wanted.
>
> Westchester, meanwhile, has already decided it's a good idea. This month,
> Anthony Sutton, assistant commissioner of Westchester's Department of
> Emergency Services, urged the state to participate in the program and
> involve Westchester in the planning.
>
> "We are hoping to be on the cutting edge of putting this program together,''
> Sutton said.
>
> Studies have found that if taken in time, potassium iodide, or KI, can block
> the thyroid gland's intake of radioactive iodine. That helps prevent thyroid
> cancers and other thyroid diseases that may otherwise be caused by exposure
> to radioactive iodine dispersed in a severe nuclear accident.
>
> Emergency plans for all of the nation's nuclear power plants already provide
> for distribution of potassium iodide to emergency workers.
>
> Sutton said Westchester has about 8,000 bottles in storage for that purpose.
>
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Coalition for Peace and Justice and the UNPLUG Salem Campaign; 321 Barr Ave.,
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