Radiation Protection Products
Herbal Radioprotectors
DRDO is presently following a three-pronged strategy in this difficult area as the drugs available presently are quite toxic. A number of potential chemical radioprotectors like HT-AT have been characterised and found effective. Efforts are now on for developing herbal radioprotectors from plants with known safety profile. Three such plants with significant radioprotection (up to 80 per cent on lethal irraDIATion of animals) and wide safety margin have been identified. Two radioprotector molecules have also been identified, characterised, and purified from a herbal source and are undergoing safety trials. A number of anti-oxidant drugs and herbal products with significant radioprotector potential will also form part of the medical management.
Protective Clothing for Medical Quick Reaction Teams
Cesium-137, iodine-131, strontium-89 and 90, and heavy metals like uranium and plutonium tend to enter the body through several portals of entry in different chemical forms and settle down in various target organs. They become a continuous source of injurious raDIATion from within the body that has far reaching systemic and genetic effects and often prove fatal in medium-term or long-term perspective. Using innovative aspects of medicine, drug-delivery technology and human modelling, DRDO has developed a controlled-release multi-drug oral formulation that enhances excretion of a specific radionuclide by up to 40 per cent (in one-fifth the dose of conventional formulation) within three days. Another formulation developed by DRDO has been found as a viable substitute of the conventional injectable drug in humans. These products are capable of chelating mono-, bi- and multivalent radioactive metallic ions that have been ingested or are circulating in the blood and shall be effective in reducing the raDIATion burden of radioactive cesium, strontium, and heavy metals like uranium. The advantages of the formulations lie in their cost-effectiveness, practicality and oral route of decorporation. The formulations will offer protection to health workers, defence forces and inhabitants exposed to radioactive fallout.
Health workers entering fallout areas require special protective gear to prevent physical contact with the contaminant material. Special requirements of such a gear include full body coverage without reduction in mobility and working ability, complete occlusion of colloids, significant reduction in dermal contact/inhalation of fallout materials while maintaining adequate aeration and temperature gradient. A suit for quick reaction teams has been developed with helpful colour coding. The technology has been transferred to the industry.
Shudhika-Skin Decorporation Kit
A portable emergency kit for health workers has been developed for facilitating washing off of colloidal and molecular forms of radioactivity from surfaces, including the human skin, apart from other essential material. The kit contains approved chemicals and meets the regulatory criteria. One kit is adequate for significant external decontamination of seven to eight persons. The technology has been transferred to the industry.
