U.S. Food and Drug Administration Calls for New Radiation Treatments

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration Friday called for the private development of new treatments to counter exposure to radioactive elements using two new drugs (see GSN, May 19).

The FDA has determined that pentetate calcium trisodium (Ca-DTPA) and pentetate zinc trisodium (Zn-DTPA) help eliminate plutonium, americium and curium from the human body, according to an agency press release.  The FDA is now calling for drug producers to submit marketing applications for treatments using Ca-DTPA and Zn-DTPA because there are currently no such products.

“One of FDA’s most urgent new challenges is to protect Americans from heightened threats of terrorism,” FDA Commissioner Mark McClellan said.  “We are doing all we can to help product developers provide safe and effective countermeasures for biological, chemical, and radiological attacks,” he said (U.S. Food and Drug Administration release, Sept. 12).

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Los Alamos Researchers Develop Quick Dirty Bomb Analysis Technique

Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico have developed a method for quickly identifying the components of a “dirty bomb” and discovering the culprits behind such an attack, the laboratory announced yesterday (see GSN, Jan. 3).

Before this development, identifying the isotopes used in a radiological weapon was expected to take 24 hours or more, according to the laboratory.  A team led by scientist Bennie Martinez has now developed a method to complete the work in as little as six hours.

“It’s clear the method can identify a variety of radionuclides that might be present in dirty bomb debris,” Martinez said.  “Since the method is fairly simple and uses a minimum of equipment, we believe it could be forward deployed and could provide early data to law enforcement and others following a terrorist event.  We want to help officials close in on the culprits as fast as possible,” he added (Los Alamos National Laboratory release, Sept. 10).

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