WASHINGTON (AP) — Japan's nuclear crisis is spiking demand in the U.S. and a few other places for a cheap drug that can protect against one type of radiation damage — even though the risk is only in Japan.
Health agencies in California and western Canada said Tuesday that there's no reason for people an ocean away to suddenly stock up on potassium iodide. Some key suppliers say they're back-ordered and are getting panicked calls from potential customers.
"There's a lot of mythology about the use of potassium iodide," Dr. Irwin Redlener, a pediatrician and disaster preparedness specialist at Columbia University, said. "It's not a radiation antidote in general."
The pill can help prevent radioactive iodine from causing thyroid cancer, for which children are most at risk in a nuclear disaster.
Japan's Nuclear Safety Agency has stored potassium iodide to distribute in case of high radiation exposure, and the U.S. Navy is giving it to military crews exposed to radiation as they help with relief efforts in Japan. But government and independent experts say Americans have little to fear from any radiation released by the damaged Japanese nuclear plant.
"You just aren't going to have any radiological material that, by the time it traveled those large distances, could present any risk to the American public," Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Greg Jazcko said.
MARG: What does this drug do?
Potassium iodide, a salt also known as KI, shields the thyroid from radioactive iodine. It blocks no other type of radiation, and protects no other body part. The drug, either pill or liquid form, is sold over-the-counter and is considered safe, but some people may experience allergic reactions. It should be given within a few hours of radiation exposure — but isn't considered that useful for people over the age of 40.
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