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RE: AAP Statement on Radiation Disasters and Children
A Grosso wrote:
-----Original Message-----
From: A. Grosso [mailto:grosso@u.washington.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, April 08, 2003 9:57 AM
To: Potter, Gus
Cc: radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu
Subject: Re: AAP Statement on Radiation Disasters and Children
I have a question about KI use for terrorist inicidents. I was at at
"Emergency Response Meeting" & someone stated that tincture of Iodine (3
drops) in a
glass of water or Betadine applied to the skin could be a good substitute
for the KI tablets. I have never heard of this as a way to block the
thyorid & would like to know if anyone else has experience or information
on this issue.
Alex
Alex J. Grosso, Jr.
Health Physicist
grosso@u.washington.edu
206-616-5564
=================
Alex,
Not only is this a way to block the thyroid, but I feel it is preferable to the use of KI tablets for several reasons.
I append a couple of exchanges of email messages on this topic over the last six or so years. They refer to painting iodine-containing antiseptics on the skin, but I see no reason why tincture of iodine in water would not work. When I was a Boy Scout many years ago, we used iodine tablets to purify water, so safety is not likely to be an issue -- confusion about dosage might be.
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.
=======================
Kjell Johansen wrote:
-----Original Message-----
From: Kjell A. Johansen [mailto:kajohans@powercom.net]
Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2001 10:41 AM
To: radsafe
Subject: KI
Radsafers,
I seem to remember reading somewhere that I can be administered by
rubbing tincture of I on the skin. The degree of protection was not as
great but still offered some protection. Does anyone else recall such
an article.
Kjell Johansen
kajohans@powercom.net
======================
Kjell,
The work you are thinking of was done by Kenneth Miller and his colleagues at Penn State. Their experiments suggested that topical application of iodine-bearing antiseptics would be as effective in loading the thyroid with stable iodine as KI pills. From my point of view, it would have several advantages over distribution of KI to the general public.
I append an email exchange I had with Professor Miller about five years ago.
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.
==========================
Author: kmiller@radmail.xray.hmc.psu.edu at -SMTPlink
Date: 2/21/96 3:10 PM
Priority: Normal
TO: James S Jr Dukelow at ~PNL5
Subject: Re: Thyroid loading with tin
------------------------------- Message Contents -------------------------------
RE>Thyroid loading with tincture of iodine 2/21/96
Jim,
Our research on effectiveness of topically applied iodine culminated in
studies in humans and was published in HEALTH PHYSICS as per the following:
Miller, K.L.; Coen, P.E.; White, W.J.; Hurst, W.J.; Achey, B.E.; Lang,
C.M.: "Effectiveness of Skin Absorption of Tincture of I in Blocking
Radioiodine from the Human Thyroid Gland", Health Physics, Vol. 56, No. 6.
Pages 911-914, 1989.
Unfortunately, although we needed to do additional studies in order to come up
with specific recommendations on optimum dose of tincture of iodine, ideal
body location for application, advanages/disadvantages of occlusive dressing,
etc. there were no TMI or Chernobyl accidents going on at the time and we
could not obtain the funding necessary to do further studies. In all, we
published the results of 3 studies, first in rats, secondly in dogs and
finally, in humans. All showed promise of an alternative for those times when
KI would not be sufficiently available.
I hope this helps. Incidentally, my phone number is (office) 717-531-8027,
(home) 717-533-4078. My e-mail address is kmiller@xray.hmc.psu.edu
If you need further information, please let me know.
Regards,
Ken
--------------------------------------
Date: 2/21/96 5:24 PM
To: Kenneth Miller
From: js_dukelow@ccmail.pnl.gov
Date: Wed, 21 Feb 1996 14:12 -0800 (PST)
From: js_dukelow@ccmail.pnl.gov
Subject: Thyroid loading with tincture of iodine
To: kmiller@chasse-spleen.xray.hmc.psu.edu
Dear Professor Miller:
Perhaps email will let us avoid telephone tag. The RADSAFE mailing
list has had a discussion thread for the last week or so on the safety of
potassium iodide used as a thyroid blocker. I remember a short note in
Science News several years back about your group's work with rats on the
efficacy of thyroid blocking using ingested KI versus iodine absorbed
through the skin using tincture of iodine and povidine. The article ended
with the note that you intended to due some further testing; I was curious
what, if any, further results you obtained. I was planning on sending a
brief message to RADSAFE describing your earlier results and thought it
would be nice to be able to bring it up to date.
More generally, it has puzzled me that your research is not more
widely known in the health physics and nuclear engineering communities,
since I-131 is a primary driver for the public health consequences of a
wide variety of hypothesized reactor accidents (and real ones, for that
matter).
Best regards.
Jim Dukelow
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Richland, WA
<snip>
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