• The explosion of a nuclear power plant?

    A nuclear war?

    The conflict in Ukraine has rekindled certain fears among the French population.

    More and more people are asking in pharmacies for tablets containing iodine.

  • Besides the side effects, this potassium iodide packaged in a box of ten tablets is not accessible anywhere…

  • “Their distribution is well regulated”, explains the vice-president of the regional council of the order of pharmacists in the, Christian Barth.

    “This is a stock managed by the army and entrusted to pharmacies close to a power plant, because the tablets are only accessible to people who live within a radius of 20 km around a nuclear reactor.

    »

Masks, hydroalcoholic gel, vaccines and now… iodine.

Pharmacies have seen the demands of their patients evolve between the health crisis and the war in Ukraine.

Especially since the attack on the Zaporijjia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe, last week.

"People do not hide it, they are afraid of the radioactive risk", explains a holder of a pharmacy in Strasbourg.

In the Alsatian capital, several of his colleagues confirm it: requests have multiplied in recent days to obtain potassium iodide.

Either a medicine packaged in a box of ten tablets and not accessible anywhere.

“Their distribution is well regulated”, explains the vice-president of the regional council of the order of pharmacists in the Grand-Est, Christian Barth.

“This is a stock managed by the army and entrusted to pharmacies close to a power plant, because the tablets are only accessible to people who live within a radius of 20 km around a nuclear reactor.

»

In the Bas-Rhin, you have to live around Fessenheim to have access to the famous white and blue box.

“Here, the inhabitants are aware that they are entitled to one box per household.

They simply have to show us proof of address and, for newcomers, a document from the town hall, ”explains Mylène, from the only pharmacy in the city.

The healthcare professional has not noticed an increased demand from locals, rather from people who are geographically distant.

“We are called from Colmar, Obernai and even other regions of France to buy potassium iodide.

People believe it's over the counter like in Belgium and are willing to pay.

But it's useless, we can't deliver them like that..."

“There is no need to take it preventively”

Especially since these tablets are only to be taken in the event of a nuclear accident and on the orders of the health authorities.

“It's to saturate the thyroid gland with iodine and therefore protect it from radioactive iodine.

There is no need to take it preventively”, continues Christian Barth, alerting to “the risks” linked to untimely self-medication.

“And it won't protect against anything in the event of an explosion or a nuclear attack.

There may be other broadcasts, continues Arnaud, pharmacy owner in downtown Strasbourg.

It's as if we thought that a motorcycle helmet avoided having a sprained knee..."

He has also noticed other abuses on his shelves since the start of the conflict in Ukraine: the transfer to products that contain iodine.

“People ask me for food supplements, multivitamins, anything you can get.

Except that it is not at all the same dosage.

It would take 400 capsules to reach the 65 milligrams contained in the potassium iodide tablet.

As much as they eat a good oyster platter!

»

In the same way, one of her colleagues advises, not without having fun with her schoolboy humor, “to go and lick mussels instead”.

“I heard of pharmacies where there had been conflicts because of all this.

Or sometimes suspicion, as if we refused to issue it, ”continues the vice-president of the regional council of the order of pharmacists.

He remembers a precedent about potassium iodide tablets.

“At the time of Chernobyl”.

World

War in Ukraine: France sends "medical products", including iodine, and continues repatriations

World

War in Ukraine: Faced with the risk of a nuclear incident, taking iodine preventively is dangerous

  • Strasbourg

  • Health

  • War in Ukraine

  • Pharmacy

  • Nuclear plant

  • Nuclear catastrophe

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