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December 6, 2006 By GEORGE BRENNAN, STAFF WRITER
KI - Potassium Iodide Pills
Those tiny pills promised more than four years ago to protect the thyroid gland in the event of an accident at Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station have finally arrived.
Tablets of potassium iodide, or KI, will protect the thyroid gland if they are taken immediately after the release of radiation from a nuclear power plant. Towns across the Cape and Islands must now figure out how to store them and how to get them into the hands of residents - and visitors.
(Staff photo by Kevin Mingora)
In 2002, the state Legislature passed a law making potassium iodide, known as KI, available to all residents of the Cape and Islands.
The allotments received in recent weeks even account for summer populations. Falmouth received 200,000 pills instead of 33,000, for example.
Most towns are still formulating plans to distribute the KI, but Sandwich will begin handing them out through the town clerk's office next week.
In Barnstable, on the other hand, health director Thomas McKean has proposed spending $100,000 to advertise the free pills and hire temporary staff to make them available on nights and weekends. He said he hopes to put KI in the hands of people and not stored in a town closet.
In Plymouth, where the nuclear power plant is located, health officials tried to distribute them free through pharmacies, but less than 10 percent of the population picked them up, said Nancy Erickson, a spokeswoman for the town's emergency director. Now the pills are stockpiled at local schools, where students must have signed permission slips on file in order to get them. Adults in Plymouth interested in getting the pills are directed to the state Department of Public Health, she said.
KI works by blocking the thyroid gland from absorbing radioactive isotopes of iodine released during a nuclear accident, reducing the risk of thyroid cancer, according to the Food and Drug Administration. The pills should be taken only after a release of radiation from a nuclear power plant. They are especially effective in children and are readily available for purchase on the Internet. On one site they are listed at $11.99 for 14 tablets.
''Right on the heels of Sept. 11, it became obvious that nuclear power plants were on the target list of terrorists,'' said state Rep. Matthew Patrick, D-Falmouth, who sponsored the amendment to have Cape and Islands towns receive stockpiles of the pills, along with towns within a 20-mile radius of nuclear plants.
Health officials warn that people should not rely on KI for protection. ''It's not a cure-all, but it protects the thyroid gland, which is the most susceptible,'' Patrick said.
A lack of urgency on the part of the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency and squabbles over how to pay for the pills resulted in the lengthy delay in receiving them, Patrick said.
The pills eventually were paid for by Entergy, the owner of the Pilgrim plant.
Every town on the Cape and Islands has received at least a portion of its stockpile from the state Department of Public Health within the last three weeks. Officials in all towns but Yarmouth were reached by the Times this week. Only Sandwich officials said they had a definite plan for distributing the pills. Beginning Dec. 15, KI will be available from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays in the town clerk's office at the town hall annex, Sandwich health agent David Mason said.
Residents are allowed two pills per household member. The clerk's office has the ability to cross-reference voting and local census data.
The town has not figured out how to stockpile the pills for visitors to the town's motels and inns or its 4,000 schoolchildren, Mason said.
''We're in the process of reviewing that now,'' Mason said of the schools. ''There are a lot of financial issues and legal issues with it.''
The pills have a shelf life until 2013. There are no provisions in the law to replace them, he said.
Along with the KI, Sandwich residents will receive a consumer package insert provided by the health department with directions for use and potential side effects. That sheet warns people who are allergic to iodine not to take KI.
Some town health agents said they will wait for a regional health meeting scheduled for Dec. 15 at the Barnstable Superior Court building to come up with dispensing plans. ''The likelihood is we will be doing this in June,'' Dennis health agent Terrence Hayes said.
Some local health departments are too busy with ongoing flu clinics to deal with the KI now, county health director George Heufelder said. ''We'll put together a logical plan for putting it out.''
Chatham had planned only for enough doses for students and pregnant women, health agent Robert Duncanson said. He plans to reorganize the town's KI working group to formulate a way to distribute the 70,000 doses Chatham received.
Other health agents had just about given up on KI arriving.
''We had a plan and the project went nowhere,'' Harwich health agent Paula Champagne said. ''Now we have to dust off the preparations we did a few years ago.''
George Brennan can be reached at gbrennan@capecodonline.com.
(Published: December 6, 2006)
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