potassium iodide caps are going through the roof!

[shanti]

i decided to take a look at ebay LAST NIGHT to see what the prices were. most were 200 dollars and up for 120 capsules, but i managed to find a BIN for TEN dollars same amount. i put it on watch as there were 127 bottles of them and i had to do some research to see if they were the right kind. well, i woke up this morning and all 127 bottles had been sold. i'm thinking the vendor may have pulled them all OR someone wanted to make a profit and bought them all to sell for 200+. wow......

is it coming to this??

[cbdo2007]

1. I've just been eating extra iodized salt.

Should do the trick here in Missouri.

[shanti]

4. well i'm in cali

big difference

[Statistical]

2. What people being idiots?

No I think that happened a long time ago.

1) It is unlikely any significant radiationn will reach the US. Note I didn't say none.

2) Potassium Iodine ONLY protects you from a single type of radioactive material. Idodine-131. I-131 is a small fraction of the output of any core breech. KI would do nothing absolutely nothing for all other types of radioactive contaminents. Iodine is also relatively dense. Most of the iodine would fall out or be rained out long before it reaches the US. If anything the material reaching the US (if any) may be completely free of I-131 making the KI pills worthless.

3) Dept of Homeland Security stocks significant stockpiles of KI. They would be dispersed in any true emergency.

4) KI people degrade rapidly from iodide to iodine. One has to question the quality of hucksters marking stuff up 5000% in a disaster.

[renegade000]

5. Indeed

And it really only protects you in the sense that it decreases the chance the radioactive iodine isotopes will be incorporated into your body tissue, particularly your thyroid, if you ingest it. It's not some magical RadAway or RadX (to reference the Fallout series of games).

[shanti]

6. thanks for the info

i feel better now. that's why i wanted to do some research first before buying any. there are actually 28 bidders now for a bottle of 65 caps and the bid is 150!

apparently greed knows no bounds....

[RebelOne]

9. No, people are being like sheep, easily herded. n/t

[Warpy]

13. Yeah, there are worse things to fear, like strontium and cesium

which are taken up by bones and teeth and there isn't a damned thing you can do about it but lower the dosage slightly by avoiding dairy, something I'd suggest for children if any significant amount reaches the US, something that is highly unlikely.

[Andy823]

3. Remember the duck tape thing?

Everybody buying out the duck tape supply, and plastic, to tape their homes up after 9/11. Or the bird flu hype, remember that one? Fear makes people do strange things, and the only ones that benefit are the greedy people try and make huge profits on such items.

[robdogbucky]

11. Then there was "With enough shovels,"

which was part of the plan of the cold war Mutually Assured Destruction days. The official Reagan game plan at one point in developinig Star Wars and a first strike capability, was that we were gameplanning a scenario for us striking the Eastern Bloc nationns first with nukes. They knew they would have enough for at least one counter-offensive, but the official plan was to prepare our citizenry to dig holes in backyards and then use things like doors to seal them off from the top, and WITH ENOUGH SHOVELS, we would survive the war. The question was, who would put the door on and shovel the last bits of dirt to seal it shut?

That slogan, with enough shovels, was the title of a book criticizing this uber-hawk position by then LA Times columnist Robert Scheer. He has since been purged from the LA Times in the relentless march of neoconservativism.


Hands off my Social Security!
Hands off Latin America!


rdb

[dipsydoodle]

7. That will stuff those who genuinely need it

for thyroid treatment whatever.

This is paranoia at its ugliest.

[Jersey Devil]

8. CNN expert last night said potassium iodide was baloney

He said you don't get thyroid cancer from exposure to radiation, that you get thyroid cancer from eating/drinking food that was exposed to radiation, mainly milk. His advice was simply not to drink milk if you are in an area where the dairy cows could have been exposed to radiation, that potassium iodide tablets would help only if you drank the milk.

[Statistical]

12. Well that is 100% false.

I guarantee you that you can get it from more that just drinking milk.

I-131 in milk = I-131 you ingest. It doesn't matter if it is in milk, if it is on other food, if it is on your hands and you transfer it to your food, or it is in water and your drink it. It isn't somehow magically bonded to milk. That being said it does CONCENTRATE in milk (as do a lot of other bad istopes like Strontium-90).

"don't get thyroid cancer from exposure to radiation, that you get thyroid cancer from eating/drinking food that was exposed to radiation, "

No you get Thyroid cancer from ingesting I-131 no matter where it comes from you can get it from food that is CONTAMINATED with I-131 not food that has been irradiated.

The issue with I-131 is unlike some other radioactive material it sticks with you, accumulates in your Thyroid in large doses and constantly bombards your Thyroid with radiation.

Compare these three scenarios:
a) you walk by some radioactive graphite. You pick up a dose for a few seconds.
b) You ingest some tritium. You pickup a dose spread out throughout your entire body for about 10 days before it passes from your system.
c) You ingest some I-131. It accumulates in your Thyroid and for the next 30 years constantly 24/7/365 bombards radiation concentrated on your Thyroid.

Of those three which do you think is the most likely to result in cancer.

Either the "expert" was misinformed, spoke vaugely, or you misinterpreted the information.

I-131 is a particularly dangerous isotope
I-131 can result in Thyroid Cancer
You accumulate I-131 by ingesting contaminated material (Food, water).
KI can prevent the accumulation of I-131 in the Thyroid. Excess I-131 is flushed from the body.

[Jersey Devil]

16. Don't blame me, I am only the messenger

What I posted is essentially what he said. I wish I could remember his name so I could Google it and find out his credentials. He was very adamant about it, basically stated that taking potassium iodide was somewhat ridiculous.

Most of what I had read would agree with what you said, so I'd think if he were totally out of line CNN would somewhere along the line bring someone on to correct him.

[quiller4]

15. He is right. People who have no risk because they are not consuming

foods exposed to radiation could cause thyroid harm by taking potassium iodide. Given the cleansing effect of Pacific storms, risk of harm due to exposure on the US mainland is minimal. Fear mongering just gives scam artists a greater chance of getting rich capitalizing on folks' fear.

[Warpy]

10. Oh, FFS.

Unless you're in parts of Alaska, there's no earthly reason to take it and it's unclear whether they'll need it, either.

This is just more duct tape and plastic.

[Marrah_G]

14. We already have some in the house

Have had them for a while. My housemate is very much into being prepared. You wouldn't believe the list of stuff we have, including a solar powered generator :)