(Photo: MGN)MIDDLETOWN, Del.- The Delaware Emergency Management Agency and the Delaware Division of Public Health distributed potassium iodide tablets on Wednesday to residents who live within a 10-mile radius of the Salem/Hope Creek nuclear facilities. The tablets were free to those who could prove their residency within the 10-mile emergency planning zone.
KI is an over-the-counter medication that saturates the thyroid gland to protect it during a radiation emergency. DEMA typically distributes KI tablets during the fall, but representatives say they added Wednesday's distribution after the nuclear disaster in Japan fueled concerns in Delaware.
Kevin Musto, a pharmacist from Atlantic Apothecary, works with DEMA in dispensing KI tablets.
"Our pharmacy had a tremendous amount of calls over the last couple weeks [about KI]," Musto said.
The pharmacists and DEMA representatives on hand stressed the KI tablets are a second-string of defense in a radiation emergency and that KI only protects the thyroid glands from radiation.
Susanne Pack, DEMA's public information officer, estimates more than 1,000 adult doses and 400 children's doses of KI tablets were dispensed at the distribution in Middletown.
