October 20, 2002

NH limits access to 'nuke pill' supply

ROGER TALBOT

Sunday News Staff

Despite the hype over terrorists targeting nuclear power plants, very few of about 120,000 New Hampshire residents who live in emergency planning zones have asked for a radiation-blocking pill available at no charge from the state.

The state announced its mail-order plan to distribute potassium iodide at the end of August. It sends the pill -- one per person -- only to residents in the 22 communities near the Seabrook Station and Vermont Yankee nuclear power plants. It responds only to a signed form, where the applicant assumes "full liability" for using the non-prescription drug.

The Department of Health and Human Services' Bureau of Radiological Health processed requests from 607 individuals in September, shipping out 3,345 tablets to the 17 communities around Seabrook and 195 to the five towns along the Vermont border. That works out to less than 1 percent of the 355,000 potassium iodide pills provided free by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Potassium iodide, commonly known by its chemical symbol, KI, works by saturating the thyroid gland with iodine. Most people can tolerate the drug without side effects, but those allergic to shellfish or iodine should not take it.

When the thyroid is filled with KI, it cannot absorb the cancer-causing radioactive iodine that is a waste product of nuclear fission and may be one of the radioactive substances released to the atmosphere in a nuclear reactor accident.

KI is not a panacea: It protects only the thyroid from only one type of radiation, but it has been widely recognized as beneficial -- especially for children -- if administered within a few hours before or after exposure to radioactive iodine. The pill is viewed as an adjunct to evacuation, since getting away from the source of radiation is the only way to minimize the harm it can cause.

The state is offering individually foil-wrapped Iosat brand 130-milligram tablets, a daily adult dosage. It recommends the tiny white pill be cut in half for children in the 3-to-18 age group. The yellow sheet that accompanies the KI tablet gives meticulous instructions on how to split or pulverize the pill to give a smaller dose to a child or an infant, but it says nothing about what the drug is, how it works, or who might be allergic to it.

The instruction sheet does note, "In an emergency situation where it is not possible to cut a tablet ... administer the complete 130-mg tablet. The benefits of doing so far outweigh the risks of overdosing!"

As of Thursday, not a single public school in the emergency planning zones had asked the Bureau of Radiological Health for a supply of potassium iodide, but district officials said on Friday that they are considering stockpiling the drug and at least two school boards have voted to do so. Four boards have rejected the pill.

Pills at school? Fred Engelbach, the assistant superintendent for School Administrative Unit 21, said the Winnacunnet, Hampton, Hampton Falls and Seabrook school boards decided not to get the free pills.

"There were lots of questions that had to do with uncertainty -- with the shelf life of the tablets (five years), with whether this dosage (130 milligrams) was correct for children, whether it would be practical to administer the drug under an emergency situation and whether the direction to do that (from public health authorities) would come in time for it to be beneficial. They just didn't have comfort that the whole program was implementable," Engelbach said.

One school board in SAU 21, South Hampton, "has chosen to stockpile KI and develop a program for its use," Engelbach said, adding that North Hampton was in the process of "surveying parents" on the issue.

In Newton on Wednesday night, the Sanborn School Board voted unanimously to acquire enough KI from the state to distribute to its 1,800 students, if a threat were posed by a release of radioactive iodine from the Seabrook Station.

"It's what a prudent person would do: Get this drug in place to be able to use it," Superintendent James H. Weiss said of the Sanborn board's decision.

Said Arthur L. Hanson, superintendent of SAU 16 in Exeter, "I'm currently working on a protocol and policy that will address how we get permission from parents and how the pills would be dispersed in an emergency. I expect that policy will go to the full SAU joint board at their December meeting and we probably will request enough of the pills to be housed in each of the schools."

Portsmouth Superintendent Lyonel B. Tracy said he expects the KI question will come before his board "in the next month or so."

He emphasized the importance of providing parents accurate information about the drug's potential benefits and limitations.

"Every parent will have an opportunity to declare whether or not they want their children to have these in an emergency," Tracy said.

He said he "feels pretty good" about the relationship with Seabrook plant officials who have involved school authorities in simulated drills and taken them on tours of the power station.

"Our first priority in an emergency is to have a real clear and safe plan for evacuation. That is the best plan of all," he said.

The state's position: Peter S. Paiton, the emergency response supervisor at the Bureau of Radiological Health, said the largest KI order to cross his desk so far was for 600 tablets, from a Seacoast area company that wanted to be able to offer the drug to its employees if an emergency were declared at the power plant during the work day.

Paiton said about $5,000 has been spent in setting up the giveaway program. About 20,000 applications and a two-page explanation of potassium iodide's benefits and limitations were distributed to city and town offices in the 22 communities. (The explainer is also on the state's Web site.)

"As a public health agency, our position is, 'If you want it, you can have it.' But we're not promoting it," he said.

He said he mailed information on the program to public school officials as well as about 130 private schools and day care centers situated in the emergency planning zones near the two power plants.

"We've gotten responses from four private schools that requested 315 tablets. ... We got requests from eight child care centers for a total of 379 tablets," Paiton said.

He won't take orders over the telephone.

Liability concerns: Connecticut officials have mailed four KI tablets to each residence within the 10-mile radius of its Millstone plants and Massachusetts enlisted pharmacies and grocery stores in its evacuation zones to distribute the free pills.

But to get a KI pill in New Hampshire, you have to download an application form from the state Web site or pick up one at your town hall, sign it and mail it in.

"We're somewhat concerned with liability," Paiton said, explaining that all the signed applications are kept on file.

He can't send pills to addresses outside the 17 communities near Seabrook Station -- Brentwood, East Kingston, Exeter, Greenland, Hampton, Hampton Falls, Kensington, Kingston, Newcastle, Newfields, Newton, North Hampton, Portsmouth, Rye, Seabrook, South Hampton, Stratham -- and the five New Hampshire towns near the Vermont Yankee plant -- Chesterfield, Hinsdale, Richmond, Swanzey and Winchester.

"If I get a letter from someone who does not live within the 10-mile zones, I write back telling them that we're unable to provide KI to them, but suggesting they can buy it (from manufacturers) on the Internet and at some pharmacies," Paiton said.

Before the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission decided to provide potassium iodide free to states, New Hampshire officials had encouraged pharmacies and stores to sell the pills, but few retailers showed interest.

Nuke forum scheduled: KI has been available for about a year at Hampton Natural Foods, 321 Lafayette Road in Hampton, where Fran Foster sells Rad-Block for $24.95 a bottle. The bottle contains 200, 65-milligram tablets.

"It's sold steadily," Foster said, explaining that KI is a product she finds customers specifically ask for. "Our close proximity to the nuclear power plant makes people want to be prepared for the worst, especially if they have children."

Foster will be handing out literature about KI and giving out free samples of the drug on Tuesday at a forum titled, "Living With Our Nuclear Neighbor at Seabrook in the Age of Terrorism." The forum, sponsored by the Seacoast Anti-Pollution League, is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Unitarian-Universalist Church, 292 State St. in Portsmouth.

The forum's panel, a mix of government officials and anti-nuclear activists, will discuss the evacuation procedures for Seabrook Station, the potassium iodide distribution program and "the flaws in these plans," said Jennifer Hicks, the league's field director.

"Even if evacuation is the first choice, the reality is that many people are going to be sitting in the emergency zone during the most critical hours," Hicks said. "Potassium iodide has to be considered a valuable and critical part of the evacuation procedure, not just a distraction. How can you be distracted by taking a pill?"

Record Number: 0F6D189EE514DE85