Doctors Lack Many Ways to Treat Radiation Exposure
29 March 2011
A woman being tested for radiation in Japan
This is the VOA Special English Health Report.
Countries across Asia and beyond are reporting small amounts of radiation from the disabled nuclear reactors in Japan. But officials say these levels are not a threat to public health.
On Tuesday, Chinese officials reported low levels of radioactive iodine-131 in areas of southeastern China. These include Guangxi, Guangdong and Shanghai. Earlier tests found the material in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang.
In South Korea, nuclear safety officials say they have found radioactive iodine in Seoul and several other areas.
Traces from the Fukushima power station have also been found as far away as Britain and the eastern United States.
Radioactive iodine loses half its strength in a week. But a more dangerous material, plutonium, has also been found in soil near the power plant.
Some medicines, like Prussian blue pills, can help expel radioactive elements from the body. But there are not a lot of treatments for radiation exposure.
The best known is potassium iodide. The pills flood the thyroid gland with non-radioactive iodine. The thyroid gland is a small organ in the neck that requires iodine for good health.
But people exposed to high levels of radioactive iodine can get thyroid cancer. The pills block the thyroid from absorbing radioactive iodine and reduce the cancer risk.
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