I ordered Potassium Iodide pills

[kenny]

We are on the California coast.
The Japanese and US governments are not saying there is anything to worry about, but . . . just in case.

They were not available at the 3 pharmacies I drove to.
They don't even stock them, and I sensed they are getting tired of people asking for it.
They said pharmacies near one of the nuclear power plants may stock it.

14 130 mg tablets (two weeks worth) costs $10 from the manufacturer, but they are out of stock with new stock expected April 18th.
Someone on Amazon is selling it for $300+. Nice.

If you want to order them for your family go to www.anbex.com
Probably not a bad thing to have on hand these days.
$10 with a 7-year shelf life.

 

[SuzyQZ]

Can't you just use iodized salt?

I'm in Southern CA. News here says nothing to worry about. (?)

 

[kenny]

If there was something to worry about would they tell us?
How much do you trust governments?

What if these precaution pills were wise to take but supply was inadequate?
Would they tell us to take them?

 

[SuzyQZ]

I'm still wondering if iodized salt would be a good substitute? It's readily available everywhere.

 

[LALove]

Kenny I don't think this is silly at all. My parents purchased these for our family (my husband, child, siblings and their SOs) about a year ago. It's best to be prepared.

 

[TravelingGal]

I'm not worried about the radiation from Japan, but we are certainly in a major earthquake zone, and there is a nuclear plant just 80 miles south of here, I believe. I'm actually in the process of putting together a good earthquake kit. We already have a wrench hanging next to the front door (ugly, but hey, we'll know where it is). I also didn't know that ammonia and bleach shouldn't be stored in the same area, which it was in our house.

So yeah, you're not nuts. Not a bad thing to just have in the disaster kit, I suppose. I already stocked up on first aid stuff this week and bought some extra drinking water. We're buying cans to store water for hygiene.

 

[ksinger]

Doesn't sound too overly paranoid to me. I think people are just taking the possibilites of disasters a bit more seriously is all.

I have to say though, being someone who gets the "I have NO idea how you can live in the heart of tornado alley, you must be nuts" type of comments, I'm not entirely sure I could live in a serious earthquake zone. In a world full of places that all seem to have drawbacks, at least I get a big fat up-front warning when tornadoes are coming, and can run away. Earthquakes? Crazy hard to predict, still.

 

[packrat]

I realize I'm going to sound like an idiot but..what is the potassium iodide for? What does it do?

Ksinger, JD and I were just talking about that the other day. How scared we were last year (well, every Spring/Summer) when the sirens went off, at least we have warning.

 

[ksinger]

I realize I'm going to sound like an idiot but..what is the potassium iodide for? What does it do?

Ksinger, JD and I were just talking about that the other day. How scared we were last year (well, every Spring/Summer) when the sirens went off, at least we have warning.

Sirens. A mixed blessing. They can be overused (which they are IMO) or used just when needed. They've gotten a bit better recently, but there for a while they would blow the sirens all over Oklahoma county for a tornado ANYWHERE in Oklahoma county. Really?? Oklahoma county is HUGE (709 square miles), and if a tornado is to the east of you, you're out of the woods 99.9999999% of the time. But hey, let's blow them everywhere! Talk about crying wolf. Apparently, people have complained though and they're going back to being a bit more targeted.

Are you in part of Tornado Alley Packrat? It can indeed be nerve-wracking in the spring....

 

[movie zombie]

warning: those of us with thyroid issues and taking certain thyroid medications need to double check our meds and counter indications. in my case, i cannot take this supplement. additionally, the supplement must be taken at the time of exposure to be effective. taking it in advance or a week later is not helpful and in some instances may cause problems.

i was going to buy it for my husband but he doesn't feel the need....apparently, the amount of radiation lessens by 50% every x amount of miles and will be non-existent by the time it reaches our california coasts. however, if it were a bomb it would be a different story.......

MoZo

 

[packrat]

I realize I'm going to sound like an idiot but..what is the potassium iodide for? What does it do?

Ksinger, JD and I were just talking about that the other day. How scared we were last year (well, every Spring/Summer) when the sirens went off, at least we have warning.

Sirens. A mixed blessing. They can be overused (which they are IMO) or used just when needed. They've gotten a bit better recently, but there for a while they would blow the sirens all over Oklahoma county for a tornado ANYWHERE in Oklahoma county. Really?? Oklahoma county is HUGE (709 square miles), and if a tornado is to the east of you, you're out of the woods 99.9999999% of the time. But hey, let's blow them everywhere! Talk about crying wolf. Apparently, people have complained though and they're going back to being a bit more targeted.

Are you in part of Tornado Alley Packrat? It can indeed be nerve-wracking in the spring....

I'm in NW Iowa, so not right in the heart of it or anything. The one that hit in Onawa a couple years ago (the Boy Scout camp) was about an hour away or so (you know how it is in the Midwest tho, you're practically neighbors w/anyone in a 2 hour driving distance), and we had tornadoes start forming here-that was a huge storm system, but none touched the ground. Last year we did have a couple touch ground, one dang near in our backyard. I did a thread on it last year..I don't know that I've ever been so scared during a storm. They're good about the sirens here tho. If they're going off, you know there's a problem.

 

[ksinger]

I realize I'm going to sound like an idiot but..what is the potassium iodide for? What does it do?

Ksinger, JD and I were just talking about that the other day. How scared we were last year (well, every Spring/Summer) when the sirens went off, at least we have warning.

Sirens. A mixed blessing. They can be overused (which they are IMO) or used just when needed. They've gotten a bit better recently, but there for a while they would blow the sirens all over Oklahoma county for a tornado ANYWHERE in Oklahoma county. Really?? Oklahoma county is HUGE (709 square miles), and if a tornado is to the east of you, you're out of the woods 99.9999999% of the time. But hey, let's blow them everywhere! Talk about crying wolf. Apparently, people have complained though and they're going back to being a bit more targeted.

Are you in part of Tornado Alley Packrat? It can indeed be nerve-wracking in the spring....

I'm in NW Iowa, so not right in the heart of it or anything. The one that hit in Onawa a couple years ago (the Boy Scout camp) was about an hour away or so (you know how it is in the Midwest tho, you're practically neighbors w/anyone in a 2 hour driving distance), and we had tornadoes start forming here-that was a huge storm system, but none touched the ground. Last year we did have a couple touch ground, one dang near in our backyard. I did a thread on it last year..I don't know that I've ever been so scared during a storm. They're good about the sirens here tho. If they're going off, you know there's a problem.

Well around here the sirens only come after you've watched it on every channel for 2 hours or more prior. Our coverage is overboard - kinda like the pre pre pre-game show..... I'm glad they're so diligent really, but they do tend to get people more spun-up and fearful than they should, IMO. And my opinion is pretty informed, having lived here all my life. When you've grown up in this stuff, you can walk out the day of storms and KNOW whether you need to be concerned or not. On May 3rd 1999, they KNEW it was going to be unholy hell, and said so EARLY. And anyone breathing knew it too....wild day.

And I've survived a monstrous earthquake. I'd not choose to push the odds and live by choice in an earthquake zone, thanks.

ETA - and Iowa is bad enough: infrequent enough to not be too concerned, but bad when it does happen. Tornadoes = no fun.

 

[kenny]

I realize I'm going to sound like an idiot but..what is the potassium iodide for? What does it do?
.

It may help prevent certain illnesses when a person is exposed to radiation.
After the Chernobyl disaster the exposed populations that got potassium iodide fared much better decades after the radiation exposure - especially the children.

Check out the FAQ part of the link I posted above.

 

[Kaleigh]

I am worried as heck, and don't live on the west coast. BUT I did live through the whole 3 mile island scare.... No one is telling the truth here.. I think they know a lot more than they are saying. They don't want to cause a panic... But hello?? Can we get a straight answer?? The answer is no.


I told my daughter who has a friend who flew to Japan to be with family the day before the quake hit. Thank god her friend is ok, and her family is ok. But many are not...

I said life as we know it has changed , and I don't know what is ahead..... I am not one to panic. Actually I am very good in emergency situations. BUT, this is huge. It's bigger than any of us know... And I learned from watching the View the damn screening things they put us in are not calibrated and many have huge amounts of radiation!!! Great, cause I always am the one to be picked to go in one.

TSA: When flying..

 

[megumic]

I am worried as heck, and don't live on the west coast. BUT I did live through the whole 3 mile island scare.... No one is telling the truth here.. I think they know a lot more than they are saying. They don't want to cause a panic... But hello?? Can we get a straight answer?? The answer is no.


I told my daughter who has a friend who flew to Japan to be with family the day before the quake hit. Thank god her friend is ok, and her family is ok. But many are not...

I said life as we know it has changed , and I don't know what is ahead..... I am not one to panic. Actually I am very good in emergency situations. BUT, this is huge. It's bigger than any of us know... And I learned from watching the View the damn screening things they put us in are not calibrated and many have huge amounts of radiation!!! Great, cause I always am the one to be picked to go in one.

TSA: When flying..

As to the bolded part, you can opt out of the back-scatter scanners and instead have a "pat-down" which turns out to be more of a frisk. Personally, I'll go with the frisk to avoid both any amount of radiation and a photo akin to my naked body recorded with the TSA for any amount of time.

(Sorry for the slight jack...)

 

[HopeDream]

I live on the coast too, but I'm not panicking, and I'm not buying iodine.

Nuclear disasters (if you're close enought to them) release many different radioactive substances - one of which is radioactive iodine, but there are also many others. Iodine suppliments are supposed to prevent the thyroid from absorbing radioactive iodine, by bombarding it with regular iodine. However this wouldn't protect me from all the other radioactive particles that could come over too. (Xe, Cs, Ru, Ba, Te, Zr, Nb, La, etc.)

Taking iodine when you don't need it can cause thyroid problems, decrease heart rate, and cause heart attack!

The tsunami made a big impact in Japan, but then it's power was diluted over the long distance, so by the time it reached North America there wasn't realy any impact. Any radiation plume will be similarly dispersed over a wide area and have its affects very very much diluted. No reason to worry about it.

Many of the radioactive materials actually have fairly short halflives (how long they are dangerously radioactive for) so during the time it takes the particles to travel, they are weakening and fizzeling out.

The reactors are safely contained except for one smallish leak. the Japanese are in some danger because of their close proximity, (30km) But I'm not in any real danger 7,569 km away. This is a very contained situation.

Nobody fussed about nuclear fallout reaching North America when the Americans bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, (many magnitudes worse than the current problem) but I'm sure some of it reached here, and our parents/grandparents were fine. I lived in North America through the Chernobyl (April 1986) disaster with no bad effects either.

Part of the problem with Chernobyl was that a) at first it was completely covered up, and people wern't evacuated until at least a day after the disaster, and even long after the disaster people continued to eat contaminated food and drink contaminated water. I'm sure people are more careful these days - propmt evacuation and caution regarding food and drink.

Normal air pollution causes a far greater cancer risk. We know smoking causes cancer, but people still do it.

I'm not going to buy iodine, but I have donated to the red cross for the Japan relief effort - my money is better spent there. I hope and pray they can get this situation cleared up as soon as possible!

 

[JewelFreak]

HD, you are very sensible. There is no danger to the U.S., even to Hawaii, even if this thing melts all the way down. Radiation in Europe was very slightly higher after Chernobyl & they've followed cancer cases since, finding absolutely no increase in thyroid or other cancers attributable to it.

We get alarmed because the news people dramatize it so much. Last night I could've strangled Shepard Smith on Fox News -- "If this melts down it will be a radiation hazard of never-before experienced proportion!" He knows that's baloney -- every nuclear scientist I've seen interviewed says it will make the immediate area uninhabitable but NOT affect the rest of the world, even much of Japan. In the next segment, after his histrionic melt-down statement, Smith says he can't understand why people in the States are taking iodine, how stupid it is with the potential side effects. Well, you scared 'em silly, Shep, you nimrod!

Iodine isn't healthy to take unless prescribed by a dr. From a medical website: <<iodine can cause side effects including swelling of the lips and face (angioedema), severe bleeding and bruising, fever, joint pain, lymph node enlargement, allergic reactions including hives, and death.>>

--- Laurie

 

[soocool]

Kenny, here is some info regarding potassium iodide pills from WebMD:

In the wake of the nuclear plant meltdown in Japan, Americans are buying up potassium iodide pills – also called iodine pills.

Potassium iodide helps prevent some of the damaging effects of radiation.

The thyroid gland in the neck is one of the most sensitive organs in the body to radiation. Exposure to high levels of radiation — as occurs during a nuclear plant meltdown — can lead to thyroid cancer.

So how does potassium iodide help?

The thyroid uses iodine normally to make thyroid hormone. The radiation from a nuclear event releases radioactive iodine into the air. When the radioactive iodine enters the body, the thyroid quickly scoops it up.

Taking potassium iodide pills temporarily stops the thyroid. If taken prior to radiation exposure, the iodine pills counter the effect of the radioactive iodine on the thyroid. This helps prevent the development of thyroid cancer down the road.

Usually, only one dose of potassium iodide is needed since a single dose protects the thyroid gland for 24 hours — assuming you remove yourself from the exposure area.

It’s important to note that potassium iodide pills protect only the thyroid. They don’t prevent your body from taking in the radiation and don’t help prevent radiation damage to other parts of the body.

Potassium iodide is available without a prescription as pills or drops. It is also found in radiation exposure kits. But taking iodine pills is not something you want to do unless instructed by your doctor or emergency management officials.

No experts are suggesting anyone in the U.S. take potassium iodide, and of course there is no current risk of radiation exposure from a nuclear meltdown in the U.S.

 

[iLander]

Didn't read the posts . . .

I can't judge you for that Kenny, since we have gas masks in the garage. We bought them after 9/11, in the panic that ensued. I wasn't sure wether we would need them or not, (or if they would even work) but it made me feel better to know they were there.

Whatever makes you feel better, more power to you.

 

[iLander]

Here's the plume in animated form, as tracked from the beginning and projected through tomorrow:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/03/16/science/plume-graphic.html?ref=science

It does show the (guesstimated) amount at California to be very low, though, so that's good.

 

[NOYFB]

Kenny,
I'm in Illinois and this was in the news today:

http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/...te-advises-20110317,0,4737667.story?track=rss

 

[kenny]

I understand PI pills only protect one part of the body from only one of many of the radioactive cooties.
To me that is not an effective argument to throw my hands up and say, "Oh well don't bother with possible protection from X because Y and Z may get another part of me anyway.
If it is for you, fine.
I did not state it protects the entire body from everything.

I understand some of the cooties have short halflives, some longer.
I understand concentration most likely declines with distance traveled.
To me this is not an effective argument to throw up my hands and say, "Oh well don't bother doing something that may protect me since there is a chance this particular cootie may not reach me in a harmful concentration".
If it is for you, fine.

I also feel sometimes there are reasons that governments/media do not tell us the whole truth.
(. . . for instance . . . We don't have enough pills so why start a panic?)
If you trust your government and media I certainly respect your right to do that.

Each person must decide what they will do.
I respect diversity and your decision.
I will not work to convince you to take PI pills.

I just posted a link to a seller as a PSA in case anyone wanted it.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

I understand PI pills only protect one part of the body from only one of many of the radioactive cooties.to.

I'm on the West Coast so buying Iodine tablets has crossed my mind. But, then again, I think of Chernobyl and aside from those living there and in neighboring towns, there wasn't a higher amount of cancer cases in surrounding regions.

FWIW, like Kenny said about the media - I totally agree. We're not being told the entire truth. Why would they want to cause wide-spread panic?

As far as iodinized salt, well, I buy sea salt, so we do not get iodine from that source. I doubt anyone could protect themselves from cancer by dosing up on that.

Anyone read "On the Beach?" I just read it for the second time a few months back. It's creepy reading about how the radiation slowly made its way around the world! (but in that book, something like 4,000 bombs were dropped!)

 

[movie zombie]

1-from what i've read, the thyroid is in fact most sensitive to radiation and the "organ" in most need of protection.
2-it is not something one takes in advance to protect oneself, but is taken at time of exposure.
3-MAKE SURE IT IS NOT COUNTER INDICATED WITH ANY OF THE MEDS YOU MAY ALREADY BE TAKING.
4-while taking PI is meant to block the uptake of radiated iodine by your thyroid, certain medications IP interacts with could mean your thyroid would take up MORE than it would have if you hadn't taken the PI in the first place.


MoZo

 

[janinegirly]

Certainly your prerogative to stock pile pills, but in my opinion this is overreaction to hype and hysteria. There is no logical reason to fear radation thousands of miles from your shore. We all live with radation day to day and as others better stated, previous crises have proven to not create the mass cases we had assumed.

Just like West Nile, Swine Flu, Mad Cow,Bird Flu, 9/11, you have to go about your life and remain logical. Just my opinion.

 

[kenny]

Certainly your prerogative to stock pile pills, but in my opinion this is overreaction to hype and hysteria. There is no logical reason to fear radation thousands of miles from your shore. We all live with radation day to day and as others better stated, previous crises have proven to not create the mass cases we had assumed.

Just like West Nile, Swine Flu, Mad Cow,Bird Flu, 9/11, you have to go about your life and remain logical. Just my opinion.

I'm not hysterical.
I'm remaining logical.
I'm going about my life.

I bought two two-week doses.
It took 30 seconds and costed $24.

That's not stockpiling.
Oh, and I'm not panicking either.

I just posted this link to a source as a PSA.
Buy it or don't.
I respect whatever you decide and will leave it at that.
Expecting everyone to see things the way you see them is problematic.
People vary.
Allow for that.

 

[EricaR]

I too live on the California Coast, I think a bit closer to the San Onofre nuclear plant than those who have already posted. We live within 25 miles of it, and when we moved into this town one of the pieces of paperwork we received was a recommendation to purchased PI tablets. Most of the pharmacies here carry them. Residents living within 5 miles of the plant are automatically issued PI tablets when they move in.

 

[kenny]

Thanks Erica.

Hey, I realize you are tentative, but if you happen to be able to make our Saturday GTG and see them in a Pharmacy I'd gladly compensate you.
If not, no problem.

 

[iheartscience]

Certainly your prerogative to stock pile pills, but in my opinion this is overreaction to hype and hysteria. There is no logical reason to fear radation thousands of miles from your shore. We all live with radation day to day and as others better stated, previous crises have proven to not create the mass cases we had assumed.

Just like West Nile, Swine Flu, Mad Cow,Bird Flu, 9/11, you have to go about your life and remain logical. Just my opinion.

I'm not hysterical.
I'm remaining logical.
I'm going about my life.

I bought two two-week doses.
It took 30 seconds and costed $24.

That's not stockpiling.
Oh, and I'm not panicking either.

I just posted this link to a source as a PSA.
Buy it or don't.
I respect whatever you decide and will leave it at that.
Expecting everyone to see things the way you see them is problematic.
People vary.
Allow for that.

janinegirly clearly stated it was your prerogative and that what she was saying was just her opinion.

Not everyone is trying to force you to agree with them.
People vary.
Allow for that.

 

[qtiekiki]

Ok I am a dork, probably because I have a chemistry degree, but it's weird to see PI used to refer to potassium iodide.

And just a FYI, WHO doesn't recommend KI pills for adults over 40, unless inhaled radiation levels are threatening to thyroid function. It's consider threatening if it's upward of 5Gy.