How Iodine Pills Can—and Can’t—Help Against Radiation

Concerns about the safety of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, as well as unease about Russia's nuclear saber-rattling, have prompted officials in Kyiv to distribute iodine pills. The government in Poland is giving out free tablets. After the country's health ministry told households to buy the pills in case of an emergency, the pharmacy ran out of them.

Measures like this can put people on edge. There was a spike in the number of searches for "potassium iodide" at the end of February after the Russian invasion of Ukrainian. Intelligence experts have been careful to point out that there are no signs that Russia is involved in the war in Europe. As of October 14, backup power had been restored at Zaporizhzhia.

It doesn't mean you should stock up on the tablets just because you can. It is important to know what the pills can and cannot do in countries where they are being distributed as a precautionary measure. The pills are not an antidote for all types of radiation exposure. The small, butterfly-shaped glands that sit at the base of the neck are only protected by them.

Nuclear weapons and power plants rely on the splitting of atoms to create energy. One of the radioactive substances that can be released during a nuclear strike is a dark purple gas that can be absorbed through the skin or lungs. The body absorbs it when it enters. Natural iodine is needed to produce essential hormones. Exposure to the radioactive version causes damage to the delicate organ.

The children are most at risk. In the years following the Chernobyl nuclear accident, there was an increase in the number of children and adolescents who were diagnosed with cancer. The radiation-related genes did not get passed on to the children of those who had been exposed. Unless the projected radiation dose is very high, the World Health Organization and US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention don't recommend it for people over 40.

The thyroid can only absorb so much at a time, and it can't tell the difference between the two types. There is a limit to the human thyroid's capacity for iui. Edward Geist is a policy researcher on nuclear energy and warfare at the RAND Corporation. If you have this radioactive iodine in you, you'll get a lower dose from it than if you don't.