A FRENCH plan to distribute iodine tablets to people living near nuclear
reactors has been criticised for not going far enough to safeguard the whole
population against thyroid cancer in the case of a serious accident. On the eve
of the tenth anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, the French health ministry
announced that it planned to distribute iodine to thousands of homes across the
country within a 5-kilometre radius of nuclear reactors.
Radioactive iodine-131, which has a half-life of eight days, was one of the
principal isotopes released by the Chernobyl explosion. It is blamed for the
epidemic of thyroid cancers among children in Belarus, Ukraine and Russia.
Swallowing stable iodine a few hours before radiation exposure can prevent this
type of cancer by saturating the thyroid gland with iodine, so the radioactive
isotope is not absorbed. Although an estimated 5 million people were given
stable iodine tablets about four days after the Chernobyl reactor exploded on 26
April 1986, it came far too late.
According to Keith Baverstock, of the WHO European Centre for Environment and
Health in Rome, as many as 16 000 children exposed to Chernobyl radiation will
contract thyroid cancer in the next four decades. There have been 800 cases
confirmed so far.
The Chernobyl thyroid cases “are tragic confirmation that the principal
health risk of an accident of this type comes from radioactive iodine”, said
Hervé Gaymard, the French health secretary. They also showed the
importance of “the early distribution of stable iodine”, he said. Other
countries, including Austria and Switzerland, already have iodine distribution
Jean-Louis Démarets of the independent radiation monitoring group
Crii-Rad, believes the French decision to give out tablets to people living
close to reactors is an important first step. “It’s the first time France has
officially admitted that there is a risk of a nuclear reactor accident and that
is a good thing,” he says. But he adds that restricting the measure to people
living in the immediate vicinity of France’s 19 reactor sites “shows the
government still hasn’t learnt the lessons of Chernobyl—because we were
contaminated 2000 kilometres away”. He wants everyone in France to have
immediate access to iodine.
Claude Birraux, an MP who follows nuclear issues, agrees that iodine should
be more widely distributed because the movement of radioactive clouds is
unpredictable. “The 5-kilometre limit must not be too rigid,” he says.