Potassium Iodide -Reply

[Charles Willis <CAW@nrc.gov>]

Dr. Pilt,

You are getting into an area that is again becoming controversial, at least in the US.
 After Chernobyl,  interest has grown.  I do not have the full story but our
understanding is that (1) the UK has provisions for distributing KI to people within
about 3 km of nuclear facilities; (2) Sweden has two central stockpiles with some
700,000 doses of KI; (3) Germany is considering regional stocks for distribution to
people within 25 km  of nuclear facilities; (4) in Finland, towns have KI for 25
percent of their populations and people are advised to buy their own KI; (5) in
France there are both regional and national stockpiles containing some 4 million
doses of KI; and (6) after Chernobyl, Poland distributed KI to almost their entire
population (to late to do much good, but the doses were  quite low anyway).  The
Polish experience is said to be encouraging because there were only about 35,000
medically significant adverse reactions to the KI.  

KI  is recommended over KIO3 because it is believed to be less likely to
adversely affect the stomachs.  

The use of KI is a complex issue that will be discussed at the Health Physics
Society meeting next week in Minneapolis; join us.

Charlie Willis
caw@nrc.gov