Preparing for a potential nuclear or radiological attack, the U.S. Postal Service has decided to acquire enough potassium iodide pills to treat all of its 750,000 employees for two days, the Los Angeles Times reported today (see GSN, July 9).

The service is the first U.S. agency to provide such pills — which would help guard against thyroid cancer during any nuclear disaster — to its entire workforce.  U.S. officials have not recommended that agencies acquire the pills, according to White House Office of Homeland Security spokesman Gordon Johndroe.  The postal service’s mail security task force, which was founded after last year’s anthrax attacks, recommended the move.

“The postal service got hurt by the anthrax scare and became more sensitized to national security,” said Alan Morris, president of Anbex, the New York company that is supplying the pills.

Postal officials ordered 1.6 million pills at a cost of $293,000, and 1 million pills have already been sent.

“It sounds like a lot of money but in postal budget terms, it’s pocket change,” said spokesman Gerry Kreinkamp.

The Postal Service, which has a $70 billion budget, is expected to have a $600 million surplus to work with next year, according to the Times (Randy Trick, Los Angeles Times, Dec. 4).

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