Chernobyl, Illinois.

• Author: Peters, Charles
• Position: Tilting at Windmills - Nuclear radiation related health risks - Brief Article

Another obvious target for terrorists is nuclear power plants. It is known that potassium iodide pills protect against a dangerous contaminant that can result from such attacks, the one that caused the epidemic of thyroid cancer in Europe after the Chernobyl explosion of 1986.

11.5 million of these pills have been produced. One question is whether that is enough, but much more troubling is that we don't have a plan for distributing them. Although the National Academy of Science has found that the pills "should be available to everyone at risk of significant health consequences from the accumulation of iodine in the thyroid in the event of a radiological incident," no guidelines have been issued as to how the pills are to be...