Thursday, March 28

War in Ukraine | Iodine for nuclear crises: the EU asks to stock up but experts doubt its effectiveness


the war in Ukraine has prompted Brussels to speed up plans to improve the European response in the event of nuclear incident. The European Union is going to urge the stocking of iodine pills and of NBC suits (Nuclear Biological and Chemical)as the British newspaper has advanced this week Financial Times and confirmed to The Newspaper of Spaina newspaper belonging to the same editorial group as this medium, the socialist MEP Nicolás González Casares. From Spain, doctors insist that you remain calm: “Don’t start taking iodine indiscriminately, because you’re going to hurt yourself”says Dr. Juan Carlos Galofré.

According to official sources quoted by the British newspaper, the EU is working on how to deal with possible chemical or biological attacks, after United States warned that Russia I could use those weapons on Ukraine. Already at the beginning of March, pharmacies in countries like Belgium, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic ran out of iodine pills after the Russian Army attacked and damaged a Ukrainian nuclear power plant. The attack triggered alerts about the risk of radioactive leaks in Europe.

Belgium calls for calm

Belgium has two nuclear power plants, Tihange in the east and Doel in the north, with seven reactors in total. In 2018, the Government decided to distribute free iodine pills in pharmacies – a box with ten pills per person – to those who lived within a radius of 100 kilometers from the nuclear plants. The plan also includes the Dutch plant in Borssele and the French plant in Chooz, close to the Belgian border, so in practice it means coverage of the entire State.

At the beginning of this month of March, the Belgian authorities warned citizens that it was not necessary to purchase iodine tablets due to the war in Ukraine. The National Crisis Center had to step out in the face of the avalanche of people who went to collect their free pills: “It is not necessary to have stable iodine tablets in this context. Especially since the potential release of radioactive iodine does not affect power plants that are no longer in operation, such as the Chernobyl nuclear power plant,” they said in a statement.

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Brussels says it is applying the lessons of the pandemic of the coronavirus, which caught Europe without a sufficient supply of protective material. Last September, the European Authority for Response and Preparedness for Health Emergencies (HERA) to identify potential future health emergencies and be prepared to face them. The European Parliamentarians consider that HERA needs to be fast in order not to be left behind by what is happening in Ukraine.

Supply emergency teams

For MEP Véronique Trillet-Lenoir “special measures are needed for places with nuclear power plants”. “We are not prepared. We do not have stock,” the parliamentarian pointed out in the aforementioned article of the Financial Times. It is in this context that the European Union is going to urge the supply of iodine pills and NBC suits (Nuclear Biological and Chemical). It would not be so much about supplying to the general populationbelieves the socialist MEP Gonzalez Casares, but to the emergency teams, those who have to go to the scene of a problem at first. For example, to help evacuate an area before a possible catastrophe.

“Here in Belgium, I know many people who have gone for their pills”

Nicholas Gonzalez Casares

The plans, indicates the MEP, go through requesting that the stocks of iodine and NBC suits be reviewed. Purchases, if necessary, could be made through the Health European Response Authority (HERA). The member countries would be talking with each state to see what stock they have and with the pharmaceutical industry to see how they can help improve or renew that stock, he explains. “Here in Belgium, I know many people who they’ve gone for their pills. They are supposed to help prevent, with low proportions of radiation, some types of cancer, especially thyroid cancer and especially in children,” adds González Casares.

‘Boom’ in Spanish pharmacies

In the first weeks of the Russian invasion and fearing a possible nuclear attack, there were also many Spaniards who flocked to pharmacies to purchase this type of tablet. So much so that the Spanish Society of Endocrinology and Nutrition (TiroSEEN) was forced to step out and ask the population for calm and common sense. Drink potassium iodide tablets to protect yourself from the effects that could arise from the arrival of clouds with radioactive material in the face of a hypothetical Russian nuclear attack does not make any sense, the doctors warned.

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In conversation with this newspaper, Dr. Juan Carlos Galofrea member of the Thyroid area of ​​the scientific society, begins by explaining that “after a nuclear accident, either due to an explosion or a leak of radioactive materiala series of elements are released en masse, including radioactive iodine, which is an isotope of normal iodine, which emits two types of radiation, beta and gamma”. This element can be captured by the thyroid gland and thereby increasing the risk of cancer.

We need “very small daily amounts -100/200 micrograms- for the thyroid hormones to be synthesized, “which are essential” for daily life

the gland thyroid, specifies the specialist, pick up the iodine and processes it to transform it into thyroid hormones. The hormones it synthesizes contain this mineral that we can only obtain through diet. They explain from the scientific society that this gland, in a natural way, will capture iodine in order to synthesize its hormones. Uptake is directly related with its internal deposits. If your reserve is full, you will catch much less (you already have enough) and what is left will be eliminated through your urine. At the other extreme, if your deposits are empty, you will be more avid for this ore.

The doctor clarifies that iodine is the fundamental element for the functioning of this gland and that we need “very small daily amounts -100/200 micrograms- for the thyroid hormones to be synthesized, “which are essential” for daily life. From there, the doctor asks the population for calm again. He knows, because his patients tell him, that there are still shortages of iodine tablets in some pharmacies. Excessive iodine intake can lead to excessive production of thyroid hormones (thyrotoxicosis) and also, although it seems paradoxical, it highlights, in some cases can cause hypothyroidism.

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only pregnant women

“People say, ‘Let’s take iodine.’ But first, we have not had a nuclear accident. Second, the iodine tablets that are in pharmacies have between 100 and 200 micrograms, which is the usual dose that we recommend to pregnant women”, indicates the specialist in relation to the indication made by doctors to women that, in the pregnancy and while breastfeeding, take an extra iodine supplement.

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To the rest, “for those of us who are not pregnant – ironically – it is enough to take the recommended doses”. Thus, the endocrinologists recommend that, so that the iodine deposits are well filled, the most important thing is that the daily intake of this mineral is adequate -that is, around 150 micrograms of iodine in the adult population and between 90-120 micrograms in the child population- through dairy products or, as a supplement, with iodized salt.

“If you go to the pharmacy and ask for tablets, first you leave pregnant women without pills and, furthermore, it is dangerous”

Dr. Galofré

“If you go to the pharmacy and ask for tablets, first you leave pregnant women without pills because you run out of them and, secondly, it is dangerous. If necessary, the health authorities will already be in charge of putting those tablets in the hands of the population. But you don’t have to go to the pharmacy, or buy iodine online because you never know what you buy. That’s the message. Iodized salt and between two and four servings of dairy a day and not now because of the war in Ukraine. Always. So we wait people calm down a little bit“, concludes Dr. Galofré.


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