http://thyroid.about.com/library/weekly/aa101401a.htm
Health in a Nuclear Accident, and Why It's NOT Readily Available to Everyone in the U.S.
by Mary Shomon
Iodine-131 is the radioactive gas that was released in the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986. Radioactive iodine becomes airborne, and post-Chernobyl exposure to this gas in the Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and areas of Eastern Europe has resulted in a 10-fold increase in thyroid cancer in children in the region, and a quadrupling of adult rates of thyroid cancer.
While residents of the area around Chernobyl are still suffering from exposure, some regions of Eastern Europe that were exposed to radiation were prepared, and were able to protect their residents from the thyroid dangers of iodine-131.
The key? Potassium iodide, (also called potassium iodine) an inexpensive drug that, when given within around 24 hours of exposure, prevents the thyroid from uptake of the radiation, and ultimately, from the increased dangers of thyroid disease and thyroid cancer due to iodine-131 exposure. Potassium iodide was handed out in Poland after the Chernobyl crisis, and this action was credited with protecting the Polish people from increased thyroid problems now being seen in Russia, the Ukraine and Belarus.
In the United States, since the Three Mile Island Nuclear Accident two decades ago, there has been an controversial and ongoing debate about making potassium iodide available to residents in the event of nuclear emergency.
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