Anti-radiation drug won't be stockpiled in Missouri, Illinois

ST. LOUIS -- Missouri and Illinois are making no plans to stockpile an anti-radiation drug that would be used in the event of a nuclear plant accident.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Thursday that both states keep the drug potassium iodide for workers who would respond to a nuclear accident. But health officials in the two states do not intend to distribute it to the general public, citing logistical problems and the false sense of security it would instill.

While both states have beefed up security at nuclear plants since Sept. 11, officials regard the chance of a devastating attack by terrorists as remote.

Gary McNutt, the Missouri Department of Health's director for environmental health, said that his agency believes that emergency plans to evacuate and shelter people are sufficient to diminish health consequences in the event of a serious reactor problem.

His department discussed this idea for a long time, and it decided that there are better ways of doing things than issuing the drug wholesale to everybody within a certain area, he said.

FDA guidelines

The Food and Drug Administration said this week that potassium iodide -- known as KI for its chemical symbol -- provides effective protection against thyroid cancer that could result from a massive radiation release.

In changing its 19-year-old guidelines, the FDA said that children -- who are among those most susceptible to thyroid problems -- should be treated at lower levels of anticipated radiation exposure than earlier guidelines called for. Infants less than 1 month old could be given daily dosages of 16 milligrams, the FDA said.

An FDA spokeswoman said that the new guidelines on the antidote resulted from what her agency learned about the Chernobyl nuclear accident in Ukraine in 1986. The previous guidelines were based on studies after the bombings of Japan in 1945.