Reasonable Rascal
12-01-02, 11:31
http://www.tennessean.com/government/archives/02/11/25882472.shtml?Element_ID=25882472
Associated Press
OAK RIDGE, Tenn. - Radiation specialists in Oak Ridge are urging the federal government to stockpile two drugs listed as investigational in case of terrorist attacks involving ''dirty bombs.''
DTPA, or diethylene triamine penta-acetic acid, and Prussian Blue, or potassium ferricyanoferrate, can be used for people contaminated by radioactive materials.
But they're not commercially available because of their investigational status, as determined by the Food and Drug Administration.
The Radiation Emergency Assistance Center/Training Site - known as REACTS - in Oak Ridge has the only supply of the drugs in the United States, and that supply is limited.
''We have looked at special drugs with the possibility of adding those to the National Pharmaceutical Stockpile, and we've developed a proposal on how that could be done,'' said Dr. Robert Ricks, a radiation biologist who directs the emergency center. The Oak Ridge specialists submitted their proposal to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Associated Press
OAK RIDGE, Tenn. - Radiation specialists in Oak Ridge are urging the federal government to stockpile two drugs listed as investigational in case of terrorist attacks involving ''dirty bombs.''
DTPA, or diethylene triamine penta-acetic acid, and Prussian Blue, or potassium ferricyanoferrate, can be used for people contaminated by radioactive materials.
But they're not commercially available because of their investigational status, as determined by the Food and Drug Administration.
The Radiation Emergency Assistance Center/Training Site - known as REACTS - in Oak Ridge has the only supply of the drugs in the United States, and that supply is limited.
''We have looked at special drugs with the possibility of adding those to the National Pharmaceutical Stockpile, and we've developed a proposal on how that could be done,'' said Dr. Robert Ricks, a radiation biologist who directs the emergency center. The Oak Ridge specialists submitted their proposal to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.