August 18, 2006 - BUSH ADMINISTRATION BLOCKING DISTRIBUTION OF IODIDE PILLS TO FAMILIES LIVING AROUND NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA), a senior member of the House Homeland Security and Energy and Commerce Committees, urged President Bush to issue long-delayed guidelines that carry out a key provision in the Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act passed in 2002. This provision, authored by Rep. Markey, extended the mandated distribution area around nuclear power plants for potassium iodide (KI) pills from 10 to 20 miles, doubling the area where residents will be given KI pills for their families. Thyroid cancer was significantly reduced, particularly in children, following the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident because authorities in Poland and elsewhere had pre-distributed these inexpensive pills that block the amount of radiation that can be absorbed by an individual when taken within a few hours of the exposure.
February 23, 2006- President Urged to Protect Children, Elderly in Case of a Nuclear Attack
WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Edward J. Markey (D-MA), a senior Democratic Member of both the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the House Homeland Security Committee, today released a letter urging President Bush and his administration to comply with the 2002 Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act and ensure that KI (potassium iodide) is available to be distributed to all persons living within a 20 mile radius of a nuclear power plant. KI is a safe and proven method of protecting the public from the risk of radiation-induced thyroid cancers in the event of a terrorist attack or nuclear accident at a nuclear power plant, and its use has been recommended by the National Academy of Sciences.
December 21, 2005- MA Delegation Questions Romney Administration's Refusal to Protect Children from Cancers Caused by Nuclear Radiation
WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Edward J. Markey (D-MA), a senior Democratic Member of both the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the House Homeland Security Committee, today released a letter signed by all of the Massachusetts House delegation urging Governor Romney to reverse a position taken by the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency Director that the “Commonwealth strongly opposes expanding the KI (potassium iodide) distribution plan to 20 miles from a nuclear power plant.” KI is a safe and proven method of protecting the public from the risk of radiation-induced thyroid cancers in the event of a terrorist attack or nuclear accident at a nuclear power plant.
June 29, 2005- Expert Report Concludes: No Safe Level of Radiation
WASHINGTON, DC – Representative Edward Markey (D-MA), a senior Member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, the panel that oversees the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), issued the following statement in response to the report released today by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) that concluded that there is no safe level of radiation exposure.
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