RE: Potassium Iodide

["Feldman, Gerald" <gfeldman@MSX.NDC.MC.UCI.EDU>]

Jim and All,



If you are going to do this, you may want to stick to tincture of iodine

(and avoid povidone antiseptics, as they will probably not have the desired

effect).



A few year back I was curious as to why povidone iodine compounds don't burn

or cause many allergic reactions, and found that the iodine is tightly bound

and complexed with an organic polymer.  I just looked up a data sheet for

povidone-iodine and found in the "Safety" section, "Absorption of iodine

through intact skin is low following the application of solutions of

povidone-iodine although systemic absorption of iodine is greatly increased

if the solutions are applied to broken skin, mucous membranes or are

introduced into cavities of the body."





Gerald Feldman

Radiation Safety Officer

UCI Medical Center

gfeldman@uci.edu

 





-----Original Message-----

From: Dukelow, James S Jr [mailto:jim.dukelow@PNL.GOV] 

Sent: Thursday, December 19, 2002 5:17 PM

To: 'RadSafe'

Subject: RE: Potassium Iodide







I haven't been paying much attention to the KI thread on Radsafe, but I

would like to comment that I consider it scientific and regulatory

malpractice on the part of NRC, CDC, and HPS to not tell the public about

topical application of iodine-bearing antiseptics as an alternative method

of blocking the thyroid.  Experiments conducted by Kenneth Miller and his

colleagues at Penn State establish pretty convincingly that a few square

inches of antiseptic would load the thyroid with stable iodine.



Consider the advantages:



1)  wide availability, as close as the nearest drugstore or supermarket



2)  So you laid in a stock of KI pills.  The alarm goes up.  You're not at

home or you are at home and can't remember where you put those pills.  Do

you remember where you keep the antiseptic?  You are 50 miles from home.

What do you do now?



3)  Potassium is one of the more important cations in the body and the

consequences of messing with the bodies potassium levels can be pretty

severe.  No such problem with tincture of iodine or povodone.



Best regards.



Jim Dukelow

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Richland, WA

jim.dukelow@pnl.gov



These comments are mine and have not been reviewed and/or approved by my

management or by the U.S. Department of Energy.

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