Angry in the Great White North

I got this email from the Toronto Police Service.  Apparently, Greenpeace pulled some sort of stunt involving an iodine pill:

On Saturday, April 4, 2009, at 5:21 p.m., police received a call for a suspicious incident in the Bloor Street East/Sherbourne Street area.

It is reported that:

• an information placard, with a single pill identified as an iodine pill, was apparently placed on a residential door by Greenpeace Canada, warning of the hazards of radiation exposure from leaking nuclear plants.

The pill was seized by police and is awaiting analysis.

The public is reminded to be very wary of any medication delivered unsolicited to their homes.

A component of radioactive fallout is an unstable isotope of iodine (iodine-131, four more neutrons than the stable iodine-127).  As you might know, isotopes of the same element are chemically identical.  So the human body will absorb radioactive iodine isotopes as readily as the normal kind.  The human body absorbs iodine from the environment and stores it in the thyroid.  If radioactive iodine is absorbed, the thyroid can be damaged, increasing the risk of cancers, often developing years after the exposure.  Iodine pills are handed out to people in areas where radioactive fallout is present in order to fill the body up on iodine-127.  That way the body won't absorb the iodine-131 present in the environment.

Iodine-131 has a half-life of eight days, so it disappears from the environment in a very short time.  Mass distribution of iodine pills would therefore be an effective way of avoiding the worst effects of iodine-131 exposure.  Civil defence agencies usually plan for each individual to receive a 10-day regimen of the pills.

The bottom line is that a single iodine pill is harmless (unless you have an allergy to iodide, since iodine is bound in potassium iodide in pills). 

If Greenpeace is behind this, then I bet they knew that too.  And I'm sure the police know this by now. [See update below; police don't think Greenpeace was behind this.] [New Update: Greenpeace says sorry!]

But a strange pill is still a strange pill, and if a child was to ingest it, no amount of scientific explanation or number of medical assurances is going to soothe the fears and anger of a parent.

I'm curious where this message was delivered.  Whose residence was targeted?  The police have identified only one of these packages.  If that's true, and Greenpeace is behind this, then I'd bet the address wasn't randomly chosen.  The home of someone who works for AECL, or perhaps Ontario Hydro?

Someone who would actually understand what an iodine pill is for?

Update: CityNews is covering this.  Some new elements to the iodine story:

• Police don't believe Greenpeace was behind this.
• The pill is still being analyzed to confirm its composition.
• More than one household might have received the flyer and pill.
• Police want people to keep anything they've received and contact 53 Division at (416) 808-5300.

Update: Greenpeace Canada hasn't responded to this story yet via their website.  It'll be interesting to watch their reaction.  I'm betting on a news release with about 10% devoted to "we deplore these actions", followed by 90% of "the true criminals are those in the nuclear power industry".  But I might be wrong.

New Update: I was wrong in my previous update.  The reaction is "Oops, sorry about the trouble", as Greenpeace admits they were behind this stunt:

"Since then, Greenpeace has agreed to cease and they've turned over all remaining [pills]. We're just testing them now," [Staff Sergeant Dan Sabadics] said.

"It seemed like a good idea at the time. But once it's explained that you're delivering pills and a child [might] get a hold of this. What effect it will have on a child? We don't know. There are liability issues."

"There is still a criminal investigation at this point. We still have to find out what we're dealing with and we'll go from there."

The hand-outs were a part of a Greenpeace campaign to raise awareness about risks associated with the Pickering nuclear station, a spokesman for the conservation organization said.

Direct action by leaving medication lying around?  Just how stupid do you have to be before Greenpeace accepts you as a member?