Re: KI Pills

[gj_vargo@ccmail.pnl.gov]

          Regarding the use of KI pills, Mozley writes: "The risk of 
          anaphylaxis to KI is low, but the consequences for any occurence 
          are potentially catastrophic.  If you distribute pharmacological 
          doses of KI to a large enough segment of the general population, 
          you risk killing a few, and making even more pretty sick."
          
          This risk was considered in NCRP Report 55, Protection of the 
          Thyroid Gland in the Event of Releases of Radioiodine."  Section 
          4.5.  Using data provided from pharmaceutical manufacturers 
          (therapeutic doses of iodide manufactured per year) and the 
          incidents of adverse drug reaction rate reported to FDA, the NCRP 
          estimates the rate of adverse reaction for 300-mg doses 
          therapeutic doses of iodide to be 5E-7/y.  (Note:  the NCRP 
          recommendation for protection of the thyroid gland is 130 mg/d.)  
          This report also considers other possible complications from 
          long-term use, or use by persons with special medical conditions. 
          Most of these adverse effects are associated with dosage and 
          frequency far in excess of the NCRP recommendation. 
          
          NCRP also makes one other important point concerning adverse 
          effects:
          
          "Although there are many individual reports of complications of 
          iodide administration in medical literature, these are anecdotal 
          in that they list a number of cases with the complications, but 
          do not give the number of patients taking iodides from which the 
          cases demonstrating abnormalities are drawn." 
          
          
          George J. Vargo
          Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
          
          Usual disclaimers...