[ Music ]
[Person 1:] I heard and I don't know how accurate this is,
but I heard that there is a pill that you can take
to stop radiation contamination
if there is a dirty bomb or power plant leak.
[Person 2:] I'm not sure about medicines for it,
but I think there are foods you can eat that help, right?
It's like the antioxidants can get rid of the radiation
or something like that.
[Person 3:] I don't know the names of them,
but I remember the people in Japan were taking a pill
to help with radiation.
So, I can't imagine the government doesn't have
some somewhere.
[Vivi:] So people are kind of all over the map
with this topic - some people think there is one medicine
that will treat all radiation injuries,
others think there are natural remedies.
During the Fukushima emergency,
people in the United States started purchasing potassium
iodide, and the media reported widespread outages
on the West Coast.
The thing was, no one
in the United States actually needed potassium iodide.
[Armin:] This is something we encounter a lot,
and not just among members of the public.
Many healthcare professionals are also unclear
about medical countermeasures that are available
for treating people and what these countermeasures can
or cannot do.
[Vivi:] Can you explain what medical countermeasures are
available in the event of a radiation emergency?
Is there an anti-radiation pill?
[Armin:] We need to be very clear - there is no such thing
as an "anti-radiation pill."
What we do have are drugs - we call them countermeasures -
that can be used to block the uptake of radioactive material,
speed up the removal of internal contamination,
and help the body recover from radiation exposure.
Each countermeasure only does one of these things.
And for the ones that block the uptake or speed up the removal
of radioactive material, they only work for certain types
of radioactive material.
There is no magic pill that renders a person resistant
to radiation or cures radiation sickness.
[Vivi:] Countermeasures are a perfect example
of why communicating radiation risk to people can be so hard -
there is a lot of background information
that people just don't know about, and that leads
to confusion about what each countermeasure does
and when to take them.
An additional challenge communicators will face
regarding countermeasures involves the availability
and distribution of these medicines.
Most health departments already have risk communication plans
to support Points of Dispensing and mass vaccination operations,
so they are familiar with the communication needs
for this type of health response.
The challenge during a radiation emergency will be combating
rumors about shortages,
confusion about who should receive medical countermeasures,
and misinformation about natural
or alternative treatment options.
If people take medicine
when it's not needed, it can be harmful.
[Armin:] Vivi, you mentioned confusion
about who should receive the countermeasures,
and I'd like to provide an example of why this can be
so challenging, and it comes back to radiation dose.
If you're a clinician treating a group of people -
including infants, children, pregnant women, adults,
elderly patients - if every one
of your patients has received the same radiation dose,
it would be prudent to give priority to the very young
and the pregnant women.
[Vivi:] Why is that?
[Armin:] That's because children are still developing
and they also have longer to live after a radiation exposure,
so they are at greater risk for developing cancer later in life.
And for pregnant women,
the concern is the effects to the unborn child.
I think most people would understand this reasoning
and be okay with triaging and prioritizing the administration
of countermeasures in this way.
But it could get trickier when you're dealing with people
who have received different doses of radiation.
What if we have an adult
who received a higher dose than a child?
It may be medically necessary to treat the adult,
while the smaller dose
to the child may not warrant medication.
How do you tell a parent
that their child does not need a countermeasure
that someone else is receiving?
[Vivi:] That's exactly why communicators need
to provide clear, concise, and accurate information
about who needs which countermeasures -
including the rationale for triaging people based
on their dose and their potential
for long-term health effects.
In some cases, the real challenge may be telling people
why they don't need countermeasures.
[Armin:] Exactly.
[ Music ]