Run on potassium iodide in Durham Region, critics urge province to delay nuclear expansion

Radiation fears in Japan have reportedly sparked a surge in demand for potassium iodide pills in Durham Region.

Pharmacists near the Pickering and Darlington nuclear power plants have reported a run on the pills since the crisis began unfolding at Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex, according to the Toronto Star. People are reportedly stocking up as a precautionary measure should anything happen here in the future.

Potassium iodide is taken before or after exposure to radiation to prevent thyroid cancer. The pills, also called KI, work by saturating the thyroid gland with iodine, so it can’t absorb radioactive iodine.

The tablets are distributed at five pharmacies within 10 kilometers of the nuclear facilities in Durham, and to schools, day cares and other agencies.

Some pharmacies have given out a year’s worth of pills in the past two days alone.

“It is important to remain calm, the provision of KI pills is strictly precautionary and part of the Nuclear Emergency Response Plan,” Ken Gorman of the Durham Region Health Department said in a statement.

People in British Columbia are also stockpiling the pills.

Meanwhile, Ontario has no plans to step back on its plans to build two new units at Darlington station in Clarington, despite calls to hold off amid new safety concerns and high costs.

Switzerland, Germany and Lithuania have all put nuclear plans on hold as the crisis worsens in Japan.

Public hearings on the Darlington project start Monday in Courtice and run through to April 2.

Some Durham residents aren’t worried about the possibility of nuclear problems here.

“I think standards in North America are pretty good,” said Oleg Chotenco, who lived near Chernobyl during the 1986 disaster.

“I cannot say I really worry about it.”

“There are so many overrides that the chances of anything actually catastrophic happening here are so slim that I’d rather not worry about it,” Elio Valdy said Wednesday.

On Wednesday Greenpeace and the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario held a joint news conference asking the province to delay the public hearings.

RNAO executive director Doris Grinspun said “sober second thought” is needed on the provincial government’s nuclear plans.

With files from The Canadian Press.

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