[MsLady]

First off the gubmint shouldn’t be buying these things. They should just tell people to keep some on hand, you never know about a terrorist attack using nuclear material/dirty bomb. The other thing is the iodine pills work for kids pretty good, for adults....meh, not so much.

[RBIEL2]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Nuclear_Event_Scale
Japan pegs their problem at level 4
France and the International Nuclear Agency(or some such) has it at a low level 6;
If it hits level 7, then the people are going to need their iodine pills. Unfortunately, there is not enough supply for the entire west coast. The prudent ones already have theirs. They are cheap, not like buying a gas mask or anything.