Author: Debbie Kim APRN, MSN, Sr. Health Care System Analyst, IEM
Once again, the evening news has me scratching my head and wondering if it is time to call my healthcare provider to secure a prescription for Potassium Iodide or even Prussian Blue? As a nurse and healthsystem analyst, I want to protect my family. But wait! I have a shellfish allergy, and one television medical expert said that I might not be able to take Potassium Iodide at all. Are the drugs safe for all my family members? What about my dog, Oscar? Time to revisit some facts.
There are several pharmacological agents that are being mentioned as being important to limit the effects of internal contamination from radioactive materials. Standard planning and response activity around a nuclear reactor includes a variety of activities, including issuing Potassium Iodide (KI) to those individuals who may have been exposed to Iodine 131 (I-131). Another drug, Prussian blue, is a “chelating” agent that can remove radioactive materials from the body by binding with them. Prussian blue is effective for treating exposure to Cesium and Thallium. Cesium-137 (Cs-137) has been detected from the smoke coming out of the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan. (Prussian blue is also a paint color well known to artists, but medical Prussian blue is formulated differently – so please don’t eat the paint!) A third drug, Diethylenetriamene pentaacetate (DTPA), is also a chelating agent. DTPA is approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for chelation of Plutonium, Americium and Curium. None of these radioisotopes (Plutonium, Americium or Curium) have been associated with the nuclear reactor fires in Japan. (more…)