Lugol's iodine Lugol's iodine Lugol's iodine, also known as aqueous iodine and strong iodine solution, is a solution of potassium iodide with iodine in water. It is a medication and disinfectant used for a number of purposes. Taken by mouth it is used to treat thyrotoxicosis until surgery can be carried out, protect the thyroid gland from radioactive iodine, and to treat iodine deficiency. When applied to the cervix it is used to help in screening for cervical cancer. As a disinfectant it may be applied to small wounds such as a needle stick injury. A small amount may also be used
Isotopes of iodine Isotopes of iodine There are 37 known isotopes of iodine (I) from I to I; all undergo radioactive decay except I, which is stable. Iodine is thus a monoisotopic element. Its longest-lived radioactive isotope, I, has a half-life of 15.7 million years, which is far too short for it to exist as a primordial nuclide. Cosmogenic sources of I produce very tiny quantities of it that are too small to affect atomic weight measurements; iodine is thus also a mononuclidic element—one that is found in nature only as a single nuclide. Most I derived radioactivity on Earth is man-made, an