There an article on FR about people ordering Iodine Tablets like crazy. I wonder if we should buy some too.
Oh, absolutely.
Invest every cent you can scrape up in tablets, then when the panic really sets in, you can sell the excess off at a huge profit.
Start your own commodity rush. If you are in at the start, you are golden.
I don’t know for this particular thing yet, but I would say certainly for your emergency preparedness kits, you bet.
If you do decide to, probably the only place you might be able to still find any would be a local "compounding" pharmacy (check your yellow pages). They actually can make them for you at a reasonable price.
Bids on Ebay for 130mg, 14 tablet packs of potassium iodide tablets that used to sell for $10 a pack are over for $300 in most cases.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iodine-131
I-131 can be absorbed through contaminated food, T1/2 about 8 days
The risk of thyroid cancer in later life appears to diminish with increasing age at time of exposure. Most risk estimates are based on studies in which radiation exposures occurred in children or teenagers. When adults are exposed, it has been difficult for epidemiologists to detect a statistically significant difference in the rates of thyroid disease above that of a similar but otherwise unexposed group
I suspect that, in adults, no statistically relevant risk has been demostrated from carcinogenesis. Since uptake is usually from comtaminanted foods, most can be removed by washing
the primary source of uptake to children is generally from the milk cycle.
I-131 falling on grass, cows eat grass,
cow mammary glands concentrate I-131, excreted into milk. Kids drink milk.
Voila, I-131 into children.
an alternative is to drink no milk for about a month
(powdered ok, as well as cheese)
Look at is this way: it's better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it. Peace of mind does wonders for one's calm.