Newspaper: The Patriot
Date: March 29, 1979
Title: Hospitals Can Test Those Linked to I-131
Author: Mark Klaus, Staff Writer

Although a person would have to be exposed to “quite a bit” of radioactive iodine 131 to be harmed, concerned persons exposed to it after a leak Wednesday at Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station can be tested at local hospitals, according to two area doctors.

Dr. Frederick Flickinger of the Harrisburg Hospital Department of Nuclear Medicine and Dr. Francis X. Perna, endocrinologist, agreed that it would take “quite a bit” of I-131 to harm most people. They declined to define how much that would be, saying it depends on the area covered and the people affected.

“I-131 has been and is continuing to be released into the air,” said Dr. Jan Strasna, public affairs officer with the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission. “But in air and grass samples taken earlier today, the I-131 level was not above the minimum level. Certainly now some I-131 is being released from the plant.”

Therapeutic I-131 frequently is used to tread hyperthyroidism, a condition of an overactive thyroid gland, by destroying part of the gland, thus cutting down on its overactivity. The thyroid contains the only tissue able to keep iodine for any length of time.

Flickinger said that persons worried about being exposed to I-131 in the TMI accident can have their thyroids monitored by a counter. He said there are no long-term effects to most persons exposed to I-131.

“When people are exposed to radioactive iodine either in gas or liquid form, we can monitor their thyroid gland by putting a detector to the throat and checking the gland,” Flickinger said, adding that radiation was not administered to patients taking this monitoring.

I-131 also is used in treating some cases of thyroid cancer, Flickinger said. He holds degrees in nuclear medicine, nuclear radiology and diagnostic medicine.

I-131 also is used in treating some cases of thyroid cancer, Flickinger said. He holds degrees in nuclear medicine, nuclear radiology and diagnostic medicine.

Perna said adverse effects from I-131 for persons with a regular-functioning thyroid would depend on age.

“The problem is not the development of hyperthyroidism, underactive thyroids, but of thyroid tumors,” Perna said. “There have been lots of animal experiments, such as those comparing lambs with adult sheep. It has been found that it takes less radioactive iodine to produce tumors in the young than in the old.”

Perna said experiments on children exposed to radioactive iodine testing in the South Pacific indicate that children can develop thyroid tumors easier than adults exposed to the same level.

“But it would have to be an awful lot of I-131 escaped into the air to produce any problems,” Perna said.

A Pennsylvania State University Capital Campus staff member, Robert Goldstein, has called for a full epidemiological study immediately by independent experts regarding the short- and long-range effects of the nuclear accident.