Potassium Iodide and Potassium Iodate (Shortened)

survivalweekly.com ^ | Jane-Alexandra Krehbiel

[Kartographer]

Did to the news that the Department of Health and Human Services has ordered 14 million doses of potassium iodide I have recieved a good number of request for information on Potassium Iodide so I am posting this short but concise article on Potassium Iodide and Potassium Iodate and Their Use in Radiologic Emergencies.

[Kartographer]

Preppers’ PING!!

[Sir Napsalot]

Good short article, thanks.

I didn’t know some tried marketing Potassium Iodate.

[djf]

Go to a drugstore.

Buy tincture of Iodine solution.

It will either be a dark brown color (real tincture of iodine) or it will be clear (potassium iodide solution).

Either way, the amount of iodine used by a person in their entire lifetime is only about a teaspoon.

So seven dollars worth of antiseptic iodine could save your life!

If you really, really want to have enough, go to a farm supply and buy animal teat antiseptic iodine by the quart!

[djf]

And realize that a quart of the stuff is enough for you and about 4,000 of your neighbors!

[trebb]

Curious about whether potassium iodide would be of much use for "conventional" radiation threats: "Potassium Iodide is a salt which when taken in the proper amounts, can block the uptake of radioactive iodine. It is frequently marketed in tablets, under the name of “Iosat”. Administering Iosat can be very beneficial because the thyroid can be quite vulnerable to radioactive iodine in a radiologic emergency, and because this strategy can benefit us in the prevention of later thyroid cancer. It is important to realize that even when properly used and taken as directed by public health officials, that the only organ protected by this practice is the thyroid, therefore evacuation from a contaminated area is always best. Since radioactive iodine has a half life of eight days, rational evacuation of a week or two may be all that is necessary. (Supposing that in this particular emergency, only radioactive iodine is released.) Following a radiologic emergency, a combination of administering potassium iodide tablets to human beings in the target area, coupled with evacuation, even for a week or two, is usually the best course."

[MrB]

Might as well...

I bought enough trichlor to treat about a million gallons of water.

“It was only a nickel more, what would YOU do?”

[djf]

Understand - the ONLY thing Iodine supplements can protect against is I-114, Iodine 114, a product of SOME nuclear fission events.

So sort of pretend that radiation is light. Iodine supplements protect you against blue radioactive light, but not green or red or yellow or purple.

But as it turns out, if you get poisoned by the blue light, it’s lights out! (It’s very deadly compared to other types)

[ladyjane]

What do you do with that solution? I read somewhere years ago that you paint it on your abdomen and it’s absorbed. Right?

[trebb]

Thanks for the clarification about the types/colors of radiations - helped make more sense of it.

[djf]

Heck, my mom was slathering iodine on me since I was a kid.

Didn’t kill me yet.

Realize that one of the primary symptoms of exposure after the above ground tests is thyroid cancer.

[djf]

It will come in a small jar, about the size of an Airplane booze jar. Should have either a long plastic rod coming from the top or an eye-dropper arrangement.

Just dab it on you belly once a day, a small amount, say a quarter sized blot is more than enough.

[djf]

[DBrow]

The article mentions a “dirty bomb”, if the dirty bomb is not radioactive iodine, KI pills won’t help at all.

[djf]

The other two forms you hear the most about are the Cesium and Strontium forms.

Cesium is closely related to potassium and gets absorbed by the cells very easily. CS-137 is radioactive, and has a half life of about 30 years. That makes it, in a sense, less radioactive than radioactive iodine, that has a half life of only about 8 days.

Strontium 90 can replace Calcium in your bones, etc, but also has a longer half life.

Some good mineral supplements or even drinking hard water can help protect against these. But Iodine deficiency was a killer, that’s why they started to put Iodine in salt, then they started to tell people not to eat salt... there is alot of Iodine in the sea and seafood and kelp, but not much on the land, the body uses it in literally microgram amounts, so if even the smallest amount is radioactive, it can kill or disable you.

[rawhide]

Amazing what you learn here on FR. Thanks.

[djf]

Another big, big advantage of Iodine tincture is that it only takes about THREE DROPS of it to disinfect a gallon of water.

Overnight, of course...

YMMV...

[Renegade]

What would be a dose for tincture/iodine?One drop/glass of water?

[FreeAtlanta]

If you have an iodine allergy (fish, shrimp, shell fish) it will kill you.

[Renegade]

I have the same bottle BUT mine says “Iodides” tincture.