Iodine pills quickly being bought up in California

Japan crisis causes run on anti-radiation pills in U.S.

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Fearful residents have flooded health officials in western states such as California, Washington and Oregon with anxious questions, and some authorities have begun issuing updates about air monitoring for radiation.
“We opened a hotline and have fielded hundreds of calls from the worried public,” said Michael Sicilio of the California Department of Public Health.
The two U.S. companies that make potassium iodide, which can reduce the risk of thyroid cancer from exposure to iodine-131, are being overwhelmed by demands for the medication from individuals, pharmacies, hospitals, day-care centers and others. end quote.

I heard Sanjay Gupta on CNN say that you need to take the pills about within 48 hours of your exposure to the radiated winds. So unless you know when radiation spikes occur in your area it might be difficult unless you were taking a pill about every 48 hours or once day during these times. I tried to chart when radiation would reach North America and I couldn't be sure but estimated that it would take about 9 or 10 days on average from  the winds. However, this can greatly vary by storms, winds, rain etc. Also, concentrations likely would be very dissipated by the time they got here. However, this present situation is in some ways worse than Chernobyl because instead of one reactor melting down we have potentially 3 or more melting down. Also Reactor number 3 is different in that it is nuclear weapons grade fuel being reprocessed. Also, it is said the cooling pools if they stay uncovered by water is the worst of all because they are directly exposed to the air with no barriers at all now to the environment except water if it is there.

Also, if you eat seaweed there is some iodine in seaweed. For example, Sushi is usually wrapped in seaweed, so most Japanese people are probably in better shape in regard to iodine than most Americans. The human body uses iodine in the Thyroid glands, aureola and sexual organs to fight infections. So, if you fill up your bodies iodine capacity it won't take on radioactive iodine in the air and give you various kinds of cancers.