Medical and scientific basis

218 Pages·2000·11.5 MB·English

by  Lampert, Mary

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WARRANT ARTICLE, 47
STOCKPILE POTASSIUM IODIDE (Kl) FOR THE PUBLIC
To see if the Town will raise and appropriate, or transfer from
available funds, including the Emergency Planning Fund provided to
the Town annually from Entergy, a sum of money to obtain and to
stockpile Potassium Iodide pills in the schools in a quantity
sufficient to provide for each student and staff member, in the
emergency shelters in a quantity sufficient to provide for the
maximum capacity of each shelter, and at a municipal building for
distribution to citizens of the Town; or take any action in relation
thereto.
MEDICAL AND SCIENTIFIC BASIS
PREPARED BY
Mary Lampert, on behalf of the
Duxbury Nuclear Advisory Committee
January 2000
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Warrant Article, 47- YES
To see if the Town will raise and appropriate, or transfer from
available funds, including the Emergency Planning Fund provided
to the Town annually from Entergy, a sum of money to obtain and
to stockpile Potassium Iodide pills in the schools in a quantity
sufficient to provide for each student and staff member, in the
emergency shelters in a quantity sufficient to provide for the
maximum capacity of each shelter, and at a municipal building for
distribution to citizens of the Town; or take any action in
relation thereto.
An Article to Protect Public Health and Safety
We have fire extinguishers in our homes, life jackets in our boats, and
Ipecac in our medicine cabinets for our children. In a similar vein, we
should have KI. We hope never to need it; but not to have it would be
foolish.
Who Supports Stockpiling KI for the Public?
Leading Professional Physicians from Leading Teaching
Organizations, including Hospitals, including
• World Health Organization • Dr. Richard Clapp, former
• American Thyroid Association Director Massachusetts Cancer
Registry, John Snow Research
• International Agency Atomic
and Training Center, B.U.
Scientists
School of Public Health
• National Council on Radiation
• Dr. David Rush, Tufts
Protection
University, Professor
• Federation of American
Emeritus Pediatrics,
Physics
President Boston Physicians
• Physicians for Social
for Social Responsibility
Responsibility
• Dr. Ted Schettler, Boston
• Union of Concerned Scientists
Medical Center, Department
Internal Medicine, author
Statewide Public Interest
Generations at Risk, 1999
Organizations, including
• Dr. Lowell Schnipper, Beth
• Citizens Awareness Network Israel Deaconess, Chief of
Oncology
• C-10 Research and Education
Center
Duxbury Committees
• Clean Water Action
• Duxbury Civil Defense
• MassPirg
Director
• Massachusetts Citizens for
• Duxbury Board of Health
Safe Energy
• Duxbury Nuclear Advisory
• Toxics Action Center
Committee
• Women's Community Cancer
Project
Why Stockpile Potassium iodide (Kl)?
Nuclear Accidents Can Happen, and Kl is Safe and FDA Approved.
Radioactive Iodine Will Be Released.
• KI is widely used. It is an
Chernobyl, TMI, and the recent ingredient in many cough syrups
nuclear accident in Tokaimura, and expectorants. The incidence
Japan illustrate that nuclear of adverse reactions to KI in
accidents can happen even in a doses used for nuclear accidents
technologically advanced society. is as low as 1 in 10 million -
often no more than a skin rash.
The risk of an accident is greater • After Chernobyl, Poland
than in the past, due to: distributed about 18 million
• aging of reactor components; doses - about 95% of children
and 23% of the adults were given
• economics of deregulation;
one or more doses. Adverse
• lax oversight by regulators;
effects were insignificant.
• on-site storage of high level
• Only those few people with a
nuclear waste at reactor sites;
known allergy to iodide should
• increased threat of terrorism
consult with a physician before
with nuclear power plants as
taking KI.
potential targets.
Kl Is Easy To Incorporate In
Radioactive Iodine Can Cause
Emergency Plans. It Is Cheap, And
Thyroid Cancer, Thyroid Disease and
It Has a Long Shelf Life.
Mental Retardation, Particularly in
KI costs less than 10 cents a pill.
Children.
It can easily be stockpiled in our
Infants and the young are most schools, shelters, and made
vulnerable to radioactive iodine. available for the public to pick up
Thyroid cancer in the young is more at a centrally located municipal
aggressive - spreading to the lymph office. It will last indefinitely
and lungs. In pregnant women. if kept dry. Replacement is
Iodine passes the placenta freely. suggested every five to ten years.
The effects of a core-melt accident Kl Is Stockpiled In Nations Around
can extend many miles. For example
The World, But Not For The Public
at 10 miles from the plant, 70% of
In Massachusetts.
exposed adults and 100% of exposed
children are likely to experience In Massachusetts, KI is stockpiled
thyroid damage. At 25 miles, 40% of only for emergency workers and
exposed adults and 80% of exposed institutionalized populations, such
children are likely to be injured. as prisoners.
Kl WORKS
KI is not carried in drugstores.
KI provides almost complete thyroid There is not enough profit. You can
protection if the recommended dose only get it over the Internet, by
is taken just before or shortly mail or telephone.
after exposure. Taken within (1)
hour after exposure, KI is 85% Even if you have KI in your home,
effective as a blocking agent; it will not do your children any
taken during the first 3-4 hours good if an accident occurs during
after exposure, KI is 50% effective school hours. Without stockpiling,
as a blocking agent. But, there is visitors to town would not be
no protection if KI is taken (6) or protected either; they would not
more hours after exposure. have known to buy it. Families and
teens on Duxbury Beach in the
summer should be protected too.
Contents
American Thyroid Association, letter to NRC -
Recommending Stockpiling KI for the Public, 1998
Becker, David M.D., Professor Radiology and Medicine
The New York Hospital - Cornell Medical Center, letter to
NRC recommending stockpiling KI for the public.
Heifetz, Ruth M.D., M.P.H. Senior Lecturer, University of
California San Diego, Dept. Family & Preventive Medicine,
letter to NRC recommending stockpiling KI for the public.
Schnipper, Lowell, M.D. Chief Oncology, Beth Israel
Deaconess Medical Center, letter to Dr. Koh recommending
stockpiling KI for the public.
von Hippel, Frank, The Need for a Stockpile of Potassium
Iodide for Public use in Case of a Major Release of
Radioactive Iodine from a Reactor Accident, Presentation
to FEMA, 1996.
Harrison, Paile, and Baverstock, Public Health
Implications of Iodine Prophylaxis in Radiological
Emergencies.
Kazakov, Demmidchik and Astakhova, Thyroid Cancer after
Chernobyl, Nature, Vol. 359, 3, September 1992.
Baverstock, Egloff,Pinchera, Ruchtl, Williams, Nature,
Vol. 359, 3, September 1992.
BBC NEWS, Chernobyl Cancer Might Have been Prevented,
1999.
Goldsmith, Grossman, Morton, Nussbaum, Kordysh. Quaastel,
Sobel, Nussbaum, Juvenille Hypothyroidism among Two
Populations Exposed to Radioiodine, Environmental Health
Perspectives, 1999
Grossman, Nussbaum, Hypothyroidism and Spontaneous
Abortions among Hanford Washington Downwinders, Archives
of Environmental Health, 1996
5
DeBuono, Barbara, MD, M.P.H., NY Commissioner Public
Health Letter Recommending that NY State Policy of KI
Include the Public, 1998.
DeBuono, Barbara, MD, M.P.H., NY Commissioner Public
Health, Rationale for Recommending Stockpiling KI for the
Public, 1998.
State of Maine Dept. Human Services Advisory Committee on
Radiation, Recommendation to Provide KI for the Public,
1997.
State of Maine Dept. Human Services Advisory Committee on
Radiation, Background Paper- Prophylactic Use of
Potassium Iodide during Nuclear Emergencies, 1997.
NRC NUREG-1633, Assessment of the Use of Potassium Iodide
as a Public Protective Action During Severe Reactor
Accidents, Appendix 1, International Practice On The Use
of Iodine Prophylaxis, 1999.
Kerry, John, Senator's Letter to NRC Recommending
Stockpiling for the Public, 1999.
Markey, Edward, Congressman's News Release, Japan Fights
Radiation Exposure with Iodine - US Nuclear Agency
Refuses to Stockpile It, 1999.
NRC, Consideration of Potassium Iodide in Emergency
Plans, Proposed Rule, 1999.
Witt, James Lee, Director FEMA, Letter to NRC
Commissioners, Federal Stockpiles not Sufficient, 1999.
FDA, Federal Register/Vol. 47, No. 125/ Tuesday, June 29,
1982/ Notices
NRC, Potassium Iodide Core Group Meeting Transcript,
March 4, 1999, Presentation by FDA Representative, Dr,
Jean Temeck - Recommending KI for the Public, 1999.
ri I.^K
Page 1 of2
American Thyroid Association, Inc.
Montefiore Medical Center
111 East 210th Street
Bronx, New York 10467
January 9, 1998
Mr. John C. Hoyle, Secretary
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Washington, D.C. 20555
Dear Mr. Hoyle:
The American Thyroid Association (ATA) has been concerned about the issue of KI availability for
many years and has endorsed the proposal for stockpiling. We have noted the amended petition for
rule making filed by Peter G. Crane.
It is first necessary to say that the 30-day period allowed for public comment is insufficient, all the
more so because it came during the holiday season. While the ATA's position on potassium iodide was
ratified unanimously at the organization's annual meeting, we believe that many physicians may wish to
write individual letters to the NRC as well. Having taken so many years to come to grips with the
potassium iodide issue—the ATA has been writing to the NRC on this subject for almost ten years—the
NRC hopefully can afford the interested public an additional 30 days in which to comment.
The ATA reiterates its previous comments to the NRC on the potassium iodide issue; the arguments in
favor of KI were aptly summarized by Dr. Jacob Robbins, writing on behalf of the ATA to the Federal
Emergency Management Agency on July 8, 1996:
1. The Chernobyl experience has shown us that thyroid cancer is indeed a major result of a large
reactor accident, even when evacuation is carried out.
2. The post-Chernobyl Polish experience has shown us that large scale deployment of KI is safe.
3. The Three Mile Island experience has shown us that it is not easy to obtain an adequate supply of
KI in an emergency.
4. The shelf life of properly packaged KI is extremely long.
5. The advantage of having a supply on hand for immediate use far outweighs its moderate cost.
6. The problems attendant on predistribution are immaterial for the matter of creating a stockpile;
7. No one questions the ability of KI to protect the thyroid from radioiodine.
8. Even though KI administration before any exposure is ideal, the Chernobyl experience also has
shown us that the exposure can continue for days; institution of KI blockade at any time in this period
is beneficial.
http://ruleforum.llnl.gov/cgi-bin/downloader/KI_PETITION_public/244-0015.htm 12/9/99