A Government expert group has recommended that iodine tablets should continue to be available for use as a counter-measure in the event of a major nuclear accident.
The expert group has also told Minister for Health Mary Harney that the shelf life of the millions of iodine tablets, distributed nationwide by the Government four years ago, can be extended to 2009, subject to reviews.
The group, which reviewed the continued use of stable iodine as a countermeasure under the national emergency plan for nuclear accidents, has said that there is an adequate supply of the tablets.
In 2002 the Department of Health purchased and distributed about 12 million iodine tablets at a cost of €2.3 million.
These were to be used to top up the level of iodine in the thyroid gland to prevent the body absorbing radioactive iodine from nuclear fall-out in the event of an accident.
It subsequently transpired, however, that the iodine tablets distributed by the Government would have no effect in the event of an emergency at the Sellafield nuclear plant. The tablets are only effective in dealing with a leak of the radioactive isotope, iodine 131, which Sellafield stopped handling some years ago.
In addition, there were also concerns that the tablets may be out of date by now.
The expiry date on the tablets is March 2005, although testing carried out by the Department of Health last year indicated that they would continue to be effective up to the end of last year.
The expert group has now told the Tánaiste in its report that that the shelf life of the iodine tablets can be extended until January 2009, subject to yearly monitoring.
It said that there was an adequate supply of iodine tablets available from Health Service Executive local area offices to supplement those provided to households in 2002.
A Department of Health spokesman said yesterday that there were about 1.3 million iodine tablets in stock. Anyone who did not have a supply should contact their Health Service Executive local office.
This weekend RTÉ will screen Fallout, a two-part drama depicting a nuclear accident at the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant in Cumbria.
However, the department spokesman said that since the closure of the Calder Hall reactors at Sellafield a number of years ago, any accident would not involve the release of radioactive iodine.
