Canadians buying potassium iodide in bulk over fears of Fukushima radiation

Health officials in the coastal Canadian province of British Columbia are cautioning residents not to try and qualm fears of radioactive contamination by ingesting mass quantities of potassium iodide.

Journalist Dan Fumano of BC’s The Province newspaper wrote this week that potassium iodide pills have been flying off the shelves of area drug stores after reports published on the internet advised people that illnesses brought on by nuclear radiation can be remedied by taking regular doses of the inorganic compound.

The British Columbians buying those pills, Fumano wrote, are largely fearful that nuclear waste leaked into the Pacific Ocean three years ago by the destruction of the Fukushima power plant across the pond in Japan is washing up on their shores.

But while potassium iodide does indeed possess its fair share of positive qualities, experts say ingesting those pills is unnecessary and could cause lead to potentially dangerous overdoses.

Fumano wrote that potassium iodide sales in BC surged immediately after the Fukushima disaster, and have again in recent months started to climb. At least one pharmacist he spoke with said she’s been sending people out of the door of her drug store when they request the quasi-cure-all pills.

“There were other instances where rumors have been rampant and misinformed the public, but nothing to the degree that (Fukushima) has,” pharmacist Pam Magee told him.

According to Magee, customers have been coming into her store asking for potassium iodide doses that are hundreds of times over the recommended intake.

“I only know the litany of pathologies that can ensue with this kind of dosing,” she told Fumano. “I always warn people against it and they often go away mad and exasperated by my stupidity.”

Other experts in the field agree. The Health Physics Society says on their website that Kl — the scientific shorthand for potassium iodide — “has been erroneously represented as a ‘magic bullet’ of radiation protection.”

“KI, if taken properly, only protects against internal radiation from radioiodine taken into the body,” the website warns. “It will not protect against external radiation or internal radiation from radionuclides other than radioiodine,” and even then will only spare the human thyroid from any radiation-induced effects.  TRUNews