News

ANTI-RADIATION PILLS

ANTI-RADIATION PILLS

Why in News?

With fears of a nuclear disaster at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia power plant growing, the European Union has decided to supply 5.5 million Anti-Radiation Pills

Radiation Emergency

• These are unplanned or accidental events that create radio-nuclear hazard to humans and the environment.
• Such situations involve radiation exposure from a radioactive source and require prompt intervention to mitigate the threat.
• Dealing with such an emergency also involves the use of anti-radiation tablets.

Anti-Radiation Pills

• Potassium Iodide (KI) tablets, or anti-radiation pills, are known to provide some protection in cases of radiation exposure.
• They contain non-radioactive iodine and can help block absorption, and subsequent concentration, of radioactive iodine in the thyroid gland.

How do these Pills Work

• After a radiation leak, radioactive iodine floats through the air and then contaminates food, water and soil.
• Internal exposure, or irradiation, occurs when radioactive iodine enters the body and accumulates in the thyroid gland.
• The thyroid gland, which uses iodine to produce hormones to regulate the body’s metabolism, has no way of telling radioactive from non-radioactive iodine.
• Potassium iodide (KI) tablets rely on this to achieve ‘thyroid blocking’.
• KI pills taken a few hours before or soon after radiation exposure ensure that non-radioactive iodine in the medicine is absorbed quickly to make the thyroid “full”.
• The thyroid becomes full and cannot absorb any more iodine – either stable or radioactive – for the next 24 hours.
• But KI pills are preventive only and cannot reverse any damage done by radiation to the thyroid gland.
• Once thyroid gland absorbs radioactive iodine, those exposed are at a high risk of developing thyroid cancer.