Nuclear weapons or an attack on a nuclear site can spew radioactive iodine. The thyroid gland absorbs this radioactive iodine and raises the risk of cancer.
Iodine tablets fill the thyroid with non-radioactive iodine (Image: Getty)
Civilians located near possible targets of a US nuclear strike in Iran have been given a radiation drug. Iodine tablets are being given to communities within two miles of the country’s nuclear facilities, an official from Iran’s Ministry of Health has said.
The move to distribute the radiation drug comes as US President Donald Trump claims that the war is “effectively over”. Last week, however, Mr Trump was reportedly considering the use of nuclear weapons to destroy two locations alleged to be part of the Iranian nuclear weapons program.
Iran’s nuclear weapon capabilities have long been a focal point of the US and Mr Trump has repeated claimed it as the reason for his country’s war on the Middle Eastern nation.
A medical official from Iran’s Ministry of Health, who has not been named, told the Times of London: “Yes, we are distributing iodine. During every war, we have tried to distribute it within a two-to-three-kilometre radius of nuclear facilities.”
Iran has also been broadcasting emergency alerts which detail what to do if the US struck these specific sites with a nuclear bomb.
Nuclear weapons or an attack on a nuclear site can spew radioactive iodine into the air that people breathe in or swallow.
The thyroid gland absorbs this radioactive iodine and raises the risk of thyroid cancer later on. Iodine tablets fill the thyroid with safe, non-radioactive iodine first so the organ absorbs much less of the radioactive fallout.
US President Donald Trump (Image: Getty)
Despite Iran’s denial that the fallout pills were being handed out, Iranian state-linked media claimed the anti-radiation pills were being handed out and stockpiled at hospitals in the southern city of Bushehr, home to Iran’s only operational nuclear power plant.
Just days earlier, a series of urgent meetings were held between Mr Trump and his national security team to decide whether the US will reignite its bombing campaign against Iran.
But on Monday, Mr Trump told reporters he believes the war in Iran “militarily is effectively over”.
“Iran militarily is effectively over,” he said. “We’re just keeping it the status quo.”
He said Iran has been “decapitated”.
The US leader is, however, still looking to make sure there is a long-term solution to ensuring that Iran’s nuclear programme is rendered harmless.