Fear of Fallout From Japan Spreads in Russia

[jpak]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/world/europe/18russia.html

Fears of radioactive contamination from the crippled nuclear plant in Japan are spreading to Russia’s Far East. Residents there are ignoring official assurances that there is no danger, and are beginning to stockpile food, medicines and facemasks.

“People are in a panic,” said Dmitri Mukhotin, a spokesman for Pharma Premium, a chain of pharmacies in the region, where there has been a run on iodine products and other items that are thought to protect the body from fallout or from radiation sickness.

“We are trying to calm people, and in no case are recommending that they use these medicines,” Mr. Mukhotin said.
Vladivostok, the largest city in the Far East, is about 600 miles northeast of the Fukushima plant. Scientists believe that any plumes of radioactive material in the atmosphere are floating in the opposite direction — at least for now.

But the events in Japan have rekindled stark memories of the Chernobyl disaster in from the Soviet era, and Russians tend to be skeptical of official pronouncements, especially during crises.

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