Calls for potassium iodide amid radiation concerns

IOWA CITY – The people who buy their groceries at the New Pioneer Co-op in downtown Iowa City can find all sorts of non-traditional foods and vitamins.

Yet workers say the focus of the calls this week has not been on whether the produce is in-season or not.  It's on potassium iodine pills because of nuclear radiation concerns from Japan after the recent earthquake and tsunami.

“We have had tons of calls about the iodide pills and we are actually sold out at the moment,” said Jenifer Angerer, marketing director at New Pioneer.

Angerer said New Pioneer's empty spot for the potassium iodine won't get filled anytime soon.

“All of the manufacturers have told us (it will be) at least a month so we won't have them for some time,” Angerer said.

That store was not the only one in Eastern Iowa with a surge in requests for potassium iodine.  Workers at major pharmacy chains in the region that could not speak publicly also confirmed, by phone, more calls have come in lately for the pills.

The Centers for Disease Control maintains potassium iodine pills (KI) can help protect the thyroid from exposure of nuclear radiation but not other parts of the body.

In a Thursday news conference, President Barack Obama said U.S. officials do not expect ”harmful levels” of radiation to reach the West Coast or even Hawaii or Alaska.

Obama also called for a comprehensive safety review at the 104 nuclear reactors in the United States.  The Duane Arnold Energy Center in Palo is Iowa's only nuclear reactor.

Mike Goldberg, director of Linn County Emergency Management, said Thursday some boxes full of KI are in the county, intended for emergency workers should a situation call for it.  He said the Iowa Department of Public Health would handle an emergency to distribute KI pills to the general public.

“In the event of a radiation incident in Iowa, we would evacuate the public to get them out of harm's way,” said Melanie Rasmusson, IDPH Bureau of Radiological Health Chief via e-mail on Thursday.  “Evacuation is more effective and safer, as KI only protects the thyroid from radioactive iodine.”

Doug Beardsley, director of Johnson County Public Health in Iowa City, said on Thursday his department has not been put on alert for KI.

“At least, in this area, there is not a heightened level of concern and I think that's appropriate,” said Beardsley.  “There should not be.”