Denmark stocks up on iodine pills to bolster nuclear emergency plan

FILE PHOTO: Danish Minister of Health and the Elderly Magnus Heunicke attends a news conference on the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the Mirror Hall in the Prime Minister's Office at Christiansborg, Copenhagen, Denmark October 23, 2020. Ritzau Scanpix/Mads Claus Rasmussen via REUTERS

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Denmark's Health Agency, concerned by the war in Ukraine, will buy 2 million iodine tablets to protect people in the event of a nuclear accident close to the Nordic country, it said on Monday.

Iodine is considered a way of protecting the body against conditions such as thyroid cancer in case of radioactive exposure, and worries about nuclear incidents in Ukraine have prompted stockpiling across Europe.