Re: Ca/Zn-DTPA Cleared by FDA

[BLHamrick@AOL.COM]

In a message dated 9/15/2003 5:42:24 PM Pacific Standard Time, 

csmarcus@ucla.edu writes:

The Food and Drug Administration today published in the Federal Register 

that Ca-DTPA and Zn-DTPA were safe and effective for the decorporation of 

plutonium, americium, and curium if made appropriately by a 

manufacturer....

The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, Sacramento County, 

and the State of Israel, among some others, I believe, have purchased these 

drugs from a compounding pharmacy (Customcare) in Florida.  This pharmacy 

has also compiled a kit of various decorporation drugs, composed of 

FDA-approved drugs (but for unapproved decorporation uses), and Prussian 

blue, Ca-DPTA, and Zn-DTPA (declared "safe and effective" for decorporation 

uses but lacking an approved manufacturer), along with plasticized 

administration instruction sheets for doctors and nurses.

Excellent job!!!  I know you have done a tremendous amount of work in this 

area, and I, for one, want to thank you for bringing some common sense into the 

regulatory process.  We all certainly hope these drugs will never be needed en 

masse, but for administrative snags to hold up their availability, in spite 

of the solid science supporting their effectiveness in cases of serious 

internal exposure events, is short-sighted and potentially harmful to public health.



Now, the radiation protection community needs to work together again (as in 

the case of KI) to provide adequate information to the public so that the 

public will not be lulled by an uninformed media into thinking these compounds are 

"magic anti-radiation" drugs.



Barbara