France expands area of distribution of iodine tablets to people living near nuclear plants

France is to give free iodine tablets to more people living near the country’s 19 nuclear plants.

The French ASN nuclear safety authority had announced in June an extension of the safety radius to 20 kilometres of each plant, up from 10 kilometres set in 2016, when some 375,000 households were prescribed the pills.

Around 2.2 million people living within 20km of a nuclear plant will be given the tablets to protect their bodies from the effects of radiation in the event of an accident.

In 2016, five years after the nuclear accident in the Japanese city of Fukushima, France gave iodine to those living within 10km of a nuclear plant.

Nuclear accidents usually release radioactive iodine into the atmosphere which is absorbed by a human’s thyroid gland.

It can lead to cancer years later.

Using stable iodine prevents the thyroid from absorbing radioactive iodine.

 

Via Reuters

 

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