GREENFIELD — A campaign is under way to get potassium iodide pills to all households within 10 miles of the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant, including those in seven Massachusetts towns in Franklin County.

At a Statehouse hearing yesterday held by the state Legislature's Joint Committee on Energy, a coalition of nuclear activists and others asked for distribution of the pills, which will be provided at no cost by the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission, for health protection.

Currently, only emergency workers and employees of power plants have access to the iodide pills which ward off thyroid diseases, including cancer, upon exposure to radioactive iodine that can be released during nuclear plant accidents.

While the federal commission will provide the pills, determinations about their distribution have been left to the states, and to date, the Massachusetts Department of Health has made no move to get the pills to residents, citing a liability issue and dubious need.

"It can cause adverse reactions," said Robert Hallisey of the department's Radiation Control Program.

But members of the coalition testified yesterday that the pills have a proven track record when taken in a timely manner.

One instance cited has been the 1986 Chernobyl accident in Russia. Pills were given to residents in nearby Poland, but none were available in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. While the incidence of thyroid cancer stayed level among Polish children, it soared 200 times the norm in the other three countries, according to data cited by the federal commission in December.

Matthew Wilson, spokesman for Toxics Action Center, a member of the coalition, said yesterday he thinks state health officials are being swayed by the nuclear industry.

"The nuclear industry is against it because it is an admission that accidents happen," he contended.

The bill calling for distribution was filed for the coalition by state Rep. Vincent Pedone, D-Worcester.

Deborah B. Katz of Rowe, spokeswoman for the Citizens Awareness Network, also a member of the coalition, said the pills should be made available and immediately accessible.

The state senators who together represent the seven towns — Stanley C. Rosenberg for Bernardston, Colrain, Gill, Greenfield and Leyden, and Stephen M. Brewer for Northfield and Warwick — both said yesterday they will await the report of the energy committee before taking a position on the distribution of the pills.

© 2001 UNION-NEWS