On behalf of the army pharmacy, Swiss Post is distributing iodine tablets to all households, businesses and public institutions within a 50-kilometre radius of Swiss nuclear power plants. However, anyone over 45 is advised not to take the tablets.
A total of 779 Swiss municipalities are being supplied with the tablets, spread over 12 cantons. Experience has shown that the iodine tablets are particularly effective for people up to 45 years of age and could protect children as young as two months from thyroid cancer, the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) told the media on Tuesday.
The risk of developing thyroid cancer decreases sharply with age. According to the FOPH, possible side effects of iodine tablets thus become more significant. At the same time, the risk of serious side effects increases with age, for example for thyroid hyperfunction triggered by iodine.
Iodine tablets would have to be taken if there were an accident at a nuclear power plant with radiation leakage. The authorities would inform people of the right time to take the tablets with potassium iodide in case of an emergency.
Old tablets are recycled
The new iodine tablets replace the packs distributed in 2014. These can be dispensed in small quantities of up to ten at all pharmacies, said Pierre-André von Zeerleder, head of the army pharmacy. The old tablets, which will soon expire, will be recycled and the iodine recovered for other uses.
Because the Mühleberg nuclear power plant has been shut down since the last distribution campaign, the distribution area has been reduced. The active nuclear power plants in Switzerland are located in Gösgen (Solothurn), Döttingen and Leibstadt (Aargau).
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. You can find them here.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
External Content
Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Almost finished… We need to confirm your email address. To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you.
Is your place of origin, your Heimatort, important to you?
Every Swiss citizen has a Heimatort, a place of origin, but many have never visited theirs. What’s your relationship with your Heimatort? What does it mean to you?
This content was published on
WEF founder Klaus Schwab has announced his immediate resignation as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the World Economic Forum.
A twin of the Milky Way existed in the young cosmos
This content was published on
A billion years after the Big Bang, there was already a spiral galaxy that resembles the Milky Way, according to the James Webb Space Telescope
Trains resume service to Swiss ski resort Zermatt after heavy snowfall
This content was published on
Zermatt can once again be reached by train starting Saturday afternoon. The Alpine holiday resort was inaccessible by land for some time after heavy snowfall last Thursday.
Authorities urge vigilance after heavy snowfall in southern Switzerland
This content was published on
Vigilance remains the order of the day in the southern canton of Valais, despite a stable situation after heavy snow on Thursday, authorities said on Saturday.
Switzerland won’t be spared drug violence: criminal police head
This content was published on
It is only a matter of time before Switzerland, like other countries in Europe, experiences an escalation in drug-related violence, says the head of the Federal Criminal Police.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.