# Potassium Iodide



## interacting (Aug 24, 2011)

Based on recent news about Fukushima, I obtained more potassium iodide for my family. The type are the iOSTAT Potassium Iodide 130 mg per tablet, which is the daily recommended adult amount. Mainstream media is pretty quiet about this serious threat, and when they are quiet, I dig deeper till I find out what's going on. You might want to check out the news report and decide what's best for yourself and your family. From time to time, I remind myself that knowledge is one of the best preparedness tools anyone can use.


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## tac803 (Nov 21, 2010)

If you don't want to answer, that's fine, but are you actually dosing your family with potassium iodide now, or waiting until a scenario presents itself that requires it?


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## interacting (Aug 24, 2011)

I'm waiting until a scenario presents itself that requires potassium iodide. I'm glad you asked your question because it points out that experts do not recommend dosing with potassium iodide unless their is an emergency situation which calls for it.

I do however, take a 125mg Kelp tablet once a day, to keep my thyroid "iodine satisfied". This way, if I'm unaware of an emergency situation, I should still be reasonably protected because 125mg of Kelp per day should provide the average adult with enough iodine for reasonable protection. Kelp tablets are available at most health food stores. I purchased 1000 tablets at The Vitamin Shoppe for around 15 dollars. It's a good supply for myself and family members. 

Yea, they thought I was nuts till Fukushima occured. Went from "conspiracy nut" to "overnight hero".

Thanks again for your important question!


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## labotomi (Feb 14, 2010)

interacting said:


> I'm waiting until a scenario presents itself that requires potassium iodide. I'm glad you asked your question because it points out that experts do not recommend dosing with potassium iodide unless their is an emergency situation which calls for it.
> 
> I do however, take a 125mg Kelp tablet once a day, to keep my thyroid "iodine satisfied". This way, if I'm unaware of an emergency situation, I should still be reasonably protected because 125mg of Kelp per day should provide the average adult with enough iodine for reasonable protection. Kelp tablets are available at most health food stores. I purchased 1000 tablets at The Vitamin Shoppe for around 15 dollars. It's a good supply for myself and family members.
> 
> ...


For most these pills are akin to installing freeze protection on your pipes when you live in Honduras.

There's another thread where I wrote the pros and cons including the extremely limited circumstances where they would be beneficial, but I don't feel like retyping or even looking for it to cut/paste or link.


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## Freyadog (Jan 27, 2010)

does anyone know the exact timeline on taking the tablets. OK, I am into Deep winter for the 3 time and they mentioned 30 days. Is that correct?


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## showmegal (Sep 14, 2011)

I just ordered some the other day and here is what it says:
"Potassium iodide should be taken as soon as possible after public health officials tell you. You should take one dose every 24 hours. More will not help you because the thyroid can "hold" only limited amounts of iodine. Larger doses will increase the risk of side effects. You will probably be told not to take the drug for more than 10 days."
I also ordered a RAD sticker as not to depend on hearing when I should take them and have yet to look up at what levels you should start taking them but off the top of my head I think its between 25-50 rad bars to seek medical evaluation and over 50 rad get straight to the hospital. 
Do your own research though for your own peace of mind.


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## goatlady (Nov 7, 2011)

It only protects the thyroid gland from uptaking radiation, nothing else is protected. Also the "normal" course of thyroid cancer takes about 20 years to develop to be fatal, so if one is older, one may consider passing on the pills and give it to the younger folks who would be more at risk.


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## labotomi (Feb 14, 2010)

showmegal said:


> I also ordered a RAD sticker as not to depend on hearing when I should take them and have yet to look up at what levels


Iodine won't cause any change on these stickers.

You're confusing radiation with contamination. Iodine is a contamination that builds up in the thyroid and emits radiation. Even then it's effect is limited to damaging the tissue within a few millimeters from the thyroid. Iodine isn't going to concentrate on these indicating stickers.

Unless you have a air particulate sampler and a good radiation detector and retest each sample 8 hours apart to determine the half life, you have no way of knowing how much iodine is present.

If it's a dirty bomb or actual nuke bomb it might affect these stickers, but a release of iodine from a nuke plant won't.

You'll hear about an iodine release from the government first because those stickers will never tell you anything.


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## labotomi (Feb 14, 2010)

goatlady said:


> It only protects the thyroid gland from uptaking radiation, nothing else is protected. Also the "normal" course of thyroid cancer takes about 20 years to develop to be fatal, so if one is older, one may consider passing on the pills and give it to the younger folks who would be more at risk.


I agree with this. The notion that it affects young people more is misleading. It affects everyone, but older people will usually pass away from other reasons before developing thyroid cancer.

Younger people have a much longer time for the cancer to develop.


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## labotomi (Feb 14, 2010)

also don't confuse Rad with Rem or Sievert. The stickers aren't going to give an indication of what type of radiation was received only the total energy amount. 

Different types of radiation cause varying levels of damage to the human body. That's where Rem and Sievert come into the discussion. Gamma is the most penetrating but does the least amount of damage. Beta is next with less penetration but slightly more damage. Alpha particles (a helium atom stripped of the electrons) are the most damaging (20x that of gamma) but is stopped by the dead layer of skin on our bodies. Unless you ingest the particles they won't hurt you.

The stickers reveal the Rad level received over time. The advice on when to seek medical attention or what symptoms to expect are expressed in Rem in the US or Sievert overseas. You cannot correlate the two without knowing the type of radiation received.


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## showmegal (Sep 14, 2011)

Ok, first I understand that iodine wont do anything to the sticker itself. I thought it would be some way of knowing since we dont have a detector yet. What would you suggest? Or do you maybe have a link to more information. The Rad Sticker info says that its useful for determining radiation exposure and if medical treatment is required in a major radiological incident, such as a nuclear or dirty bomb explosion, nuclear power plant accident. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!


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## labotomi (Feb 14, 2010)

showmegal said:


> Ok, first I understand that iodine wont do anything to the sticker itself. I thought it would be some way of knowing since we dont have a detector yet. What would you suggest? Or do you maybe have a link to more information. The Rad Sticker info says that its useful for determining radiation exposure and if medical treatment is required in a major radiological incident, such as a nuclear or dirty bomb explosion, nuclear power plant accident. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!


It might help if you were near an accident such as fukishima or chernobyl, but it wouldn't have helped those near 3 mile island.

Iodine isn't a strong radioactive source. It emits very low levels of radiation. It's only because it accumulates in and damages the thyroid that it's a concern.

If you see that change color over a short time period, there's more going on than a minor reactor incident. I don't think the sticker will be your first alert.

I don't know of anything that's really reliable and handy to measure airborne contamination, compare that to normal background levels and then determine if the increase is due to natural factors such as a temperature inversion causing stagnant air (and increase in radon levels).

We had to take daily samples. if a sample was high, it was read hours later and then the determination was made if the high levels were man made or natural. Those samples were taken with a portable air sampler (a fancy/expensive vacuum cleaner) that drew a fixed volume of air through a really efficient filter to catch all the particulate.

Taking those samples every day isn't convenient or pleasurable. If there was a better way I would have to believe it would have been used.


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