Expand potassium pill zone, TDSB says

Board asks for stockpile within 50 kilometres of Pickering plant in case of nuclear incident

Toronto’s public school board — and its elementary teachers — are urging officials to provide schools within 50 kilometres of the Pickering nuclear plant with a supply of anti-radiation pills in case of an incident.

The boundary would encompass almost all of the city’s schools and goes well beyond the current distribution radius of 10 kilometres, said Trustee Jerry Chadwick, who was part of committee that made the recommendation recently approved by the Toronto District School Board.

“All of our schools east of Morningside Ave. have had the potassium pills for years,” said Chadwick, who represents Ward 22 in the southeast end of Scarborough. “The TDSB did not have to request them, they were provided as part of the range covered by Pickering.

“Now we are asking them to cover schools in the 50-kilometre radius, which covers most of our schools.”

The issue of schools being provided with stockpiles of potassium iodide, or “KI,” pills — which protect the thyroid in case of radiation exposure — dominated hearings held on the future of the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station, said attendee Shawn-Patrick Stensil of Greenpeace.

In Greater Toronto, there are two plants: Pickering, about 30 kilometres from Toronto’s Yonge St., and Darlington, which is about 60 kilometres away.

The board has about 246,000 students in 583 schools.

“Toronto-area students deserve the same level of safety as students living near the Bruce nuclear station (on Lake Huron), where KI is stockpiled in schools” within 50 kilometres, said Stensil, who spoke at the public hearings held in Pickering this week.

Children are more vulnerable than adults to the effects of radioactive iodine, and “stockpiling KI in Torontoarea schools is the best way to protect our kids,” Stensil said.

In Toronto, some 19 public schools and seven Catholic schools have already been provided supplies of the anti-radiation pills, as have homes and businesses within the smaller radius. Chadwick noted that “strangely enough, schools actually on the west side of Morningside” — such as West Hill Collegiate — “were not included in the original distribution.”

Schools in Durham Region within 10 kilometres of Pickering and Darlington stations also have stores of the pills. A number of York Region schools are within the 50-kilometre zone, though that board has not made a similar request for pills.

The province is responsible for distributing the medication, and Ontario Power Generation, which runs the nuclear plant, has said “OPG works closely with our partners on emergency response plans and part of this is ensuring KI pills are available.”

Andrew Morrison, of the Min- istry of Community Safety and Correctional Services, said “requirements for KI pill pre-distribution are outlined in the Provincial Nuclear Emergency Response Plan and are consistent with the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission requirements for KI pills” and that those conditions have been met.

“KI pills are pre-distributed to residents, businesses and institutions, including schools, in a 10-kilometre radius around a nuclear power generating facility,” he also said. “The Provincial Nuclear Emergency Response Plan also outlines that any resident within a 50-kilometre radius of a nuclear power generating facility may request and stockpile KI pills in preparation of a nuclear incident.”

But the Elementary Teachers of Toronto say schools should automatically be provided with the pills, given that schools near the Bruce plant are, and that the American Thyroid Association “recommended that KI be pre-stocked in schools within this radius post-Fukushima,” it said in a June 22 letter referring to the 2011 nuclear disaster in Japan.

The City of Toronto has also requested pills be distributed within a larger radius.

The Toronto board will now appeal to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission for the change.

Last week, premier-designate Doug Ford held an event at the Pickering plant to show his support for keeping it open until 2024, saying it supports 7,500 jobs across the province.

While the aging plant has passed safety assessments, it has proved costly to maintain, with $200 million spent over the past eight years.

Ontario Power Generation, which runs the Pickering plant, has requested that its licence be extended for 10 years.

A number of York Region schools are within the 50-kilometre zone, though that board has not made a similar request for pills