TORONTO - Environmentalists want the Ontario government to provide evidence for its 10-kilometre limit around nuclear power plants for distribution of potassium iodide (KI) pills that help fight radiation, and say it should be expanded.
Greenpeace and the Canadian Environmental Law Association filed a request under the Ontario environmental bill of rights asking the ministry of health to do an evidence-based review of the policy surrounding distribution of the KI pills.
Radioactive iodine is released in the event of a nuclear accident, and the potassium iodide pills can help protect against thyroid cancer.
The pills were sent to about 200,000 households and businesses around the Pickering, Darlington and Bruce nuclear stations in October, and were given to another 12,500 people who asked for them.
Greenpeace spokesman Shawn-Patrick Stensil says the 10-kilometre distribution zone in Ontario was established in 1984, and notes New Brunswick has a 20-kilometre zone while Switzerland uses a 50-kilometre area for distribution of the KI pills.
Stensil believes the evidence will show the distribution zone for the pills should be expanded to as much as 50 kilometres.
