To support Ukraine, France has thus sent “different medical products“, including iodine, confirmed the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Yves Le Drian, guest of France 2 on Sunday March 6. Iodine tablets are used to limit the risk of thyroid cancer. Indeed, this thyroid gland located at the base of the neck produces the hormones essential for the proper functioning of the body, and for this it needs to absorb iodine.However, during a nuclear accident, radioactive iodine can be released into the environment and end up in the human body through breathing or eating contaminated food and the risk is that it is stored by this thyroid gland.
In the event of a nuclear accident, by distributing stable, and therefore non-radioactive, iodine tablets to the population, the strategy is to saturate the thyroid gland so that it can no longer absorb the radioactive iodine from the ‘environment. It thus becomes like a sponge already soaked in water and unable to store any more.
These tablets only protect the thyroid. They do not protect the rest of the body against other radioactive substances such as cesium 134 or 137.
This is why the Nuclear Safety Authority (DSC) recalls that in the event of an accident in a power plant, the first protection is to take shelter in a solid building.
Pharmacists in France have received requests for these iodine tablets from their patients. But remember that these tablets cannot be taken for prevention, without official instructions. France is not the only country in this case, and yet swallowing iodine tablets for prevention is useless and even dangerous.
Ideally, to be effective, these iodine tablets must be swallowed two hours before the start of radioactive iodine releases and up to six hours after the start of these releases. In France, in the event of an accident, it is the prefects who locally give the instruction to consume these tablets. If used incorrectly, they can cause side effects like vomiting, kidney problems, or heart palpitations.
In addition, remember that with us, iodine is not delivered in pharmacies on request. For 25 years, the State has set up a distribution of iodine tablets but only for the populations residing within a radius of twenty kilometers around the 19 nuclear power plants of our country. And in the event of a nuclear accident, the State also has reserves to supply the entire population.