Durham Region officials are reminding anyone living within 10 kilometres of the Pickering or Darlington nuclear complexes to keep some potassium iodide (KI) pil
In the event of a nuclear incident, the pills can help reduce the amount of radioactive iodine that gets sucked up by the thyroid.
“Newborns, infants, children, adolescents and pregnant and breastfeeding women are at the highest risk of negative health effects to the thyroid from radioactive iodine,” noted officials. “As a result, these individuals should be the first to receive KI tablets in the highly unlikely event of a nuclear accident.”
Even during a nuclear incident, the pills should only be taken when the province’s chief medical officer of health recommends it. “KI tablets are available free of charge,” said Lisa Fortuna, director of health protection with the region’s health department. “In fact, as part of the increased safety standards outlined by the [Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission], anyone living within 50 kilometres of a nuclear generating station is eligible to receive free KI tablets if they want to keep a supply available.”
“Ontario Power Generation indicates that a serious nuclear accident is extremely unlikely and would take many hours and days to unfold,” noted officials. “The Pickering nuclear generating station has operated for over 40 years without a serious accident, while the Darlington nuclear generating station has operated for over 25 years, also without a serious accident.”
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