[Prevention and therapy of accidental radionuclide uptake]

After accidental incorporation of radionuclides in the organism uptake in the whole-body and in critical organs can be either reduced or blocked (prevention) by appropriate medication and behaviour. Effective half-lives after incorporation in critical organs can be shortened (therapy). For different fallout-radionuclides a variety of preparations exists for such purposes. For large-scale prevention only iodine administration seems appropriate to block the uptake of the generally occurring 131-I in the thyroid. Such an iodine prophylaxis, however, seems only necessary when drinking water concentrations exceed 5000 nCi/l. Excessive amounts of iodine can influence thyroid function significantly.