The Vermont Department of Health makes potassium iodide tablets available to all who live and work in the six towns within the emergency planning zone around Entergy's Vermont Yankee nuclear power station in Vernon.
Acknowledging that the current stock of adult tablets (130 milligrams) expires this month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announces it is extending those tablets' “shelf life” by six months.
According to a notice from the Health Department's Brattleboro District Office, despite the original February expiration, the tablets will remain safe and effective “until at least the end of August 2014.”
Potassium iodide (KI) is a drug that, taken in an appropriate and timely dosage, can block exposure to radioactive iodine, one of the contaminants that could be released in a nuclear emergency.
Officials here say the 65 mg pediatric tablets distributed in 2013 will expire in 2017 and are unaffected by the adult tablets' shelf life extension.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says replacement adult tablets are scheduled to arrive here in April, and that area health officials will inform residents and workers in the emergency planning zone as soon as the new supply of KI arrives.
The emergency planning zone includes Brattleboro, Dummerston, Guilford, Halifax, Marlboro, and Vernon. The distribution program provides one tablet per person, and participation is voluntary.
Officials say KI should be taken only in an announced nuclear emergency and only at the direction of the Health Department.
“There is no substitute for following emergency instructions such as evacuation. Taking KI 30 minutes before, or up to three hours after, exposure to radioactive iodine can help prevent thyroid cancer, especially in children,” health officials said in a press release.