• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Why The Invasion Of Ukraine Has People Panic-Buying Iodine

October 20, 2022 by Deborah Bloomfield

Since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, iodine sales have been on the rise across Europe, with shortages recently being reported in Finland. Here, the government recommended that every household has a single dose of iodine tablets, in case of a nuclear event, leading to the shortages in pharmacies. 

Elsewhere across Europe – including in Bulgaria, Poland, and the Czech Republic – there have been reports of people buying iodine in the belief that it offers protection in the event of a nuclear war. 

Advertisement

While potassium iodide can protect you against certain types of radiation, experts and various nuclear authorities across Europe have stressed that taking the tablets is not necessary for many people and that it won’t help in the event of a nuclear strike.

If you are aware of the association between iodine and nuclear radiation, it may be due to the nuclear accident at Chernobyl. During the meltdown of the nuclear power plant, a radioactive form of iodine – iodine-131 – was emitted from the core of the reactor. Iodine-131 is readily absorbed by thyroid glands, and with a half-life of eight days, it will sit there doing radioactive damage to your DNA and the surrounding tissue. It’s approximated that 270,000 people in the area developed cancers, who wouldn’t have done if the incident had not taken place, largely due to iodine-131 contributing to thyroid cancers. 

However, there is one non-radioactive isotope of iodine that can help stop your body from absorbing the radioactive form: Iodine 127. Just four neutrons different to its fatal, cancer-causing counterpart, Iodine 127 is radioactively stable, and so will not cause radioactive damage to your body. It works by sating your body’s thirst for iodine, providing it with all the iodine it can handle. As does potassium iodide – the salt of non-radioactive iodine and potassium.

Advertisement

“When a person takes the right amount of [potassium iodide] at the right time, it can help block the thyroid from absorbing radioactive iodine,” the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explains. “This happens because the thyroid has already absorbed the [potassium iodide] and there is no room to absorb the radioactive iodine. Think of filling a jar with blue marbles. If you then pour green marbles over the jar, there will not be room and they will just spill out.”

During the Chernobyl incident, potassium iodide was given out to the population. Though it’s not possible to gauge how many lives it saved, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says if it had been more widely distributed it could have saved many more children from developing thyroid cancer.

While potassium iodide may be useful against iodine-131, other types of radiation are emitted by these disasters. What’s more, taking it would only be useful in the event of a nuclear accident, and would not reverse damage that has already been done. Taking it can also cause rashes and inflammation, as well as severe illness and death in large quantities.

Advertisement

Though governments such as Finland are advising people have a dose on hand, it is because of potential threats caused by Russia taking over nuclear power plants, rather than any worries about the possible use of nuclear weapons. Governments are also advising that you do not need to take them until you are told.

“The current situation in [Ukraine] does not require the intake of [iodine tablets],” the Federal Agency for Nuclear Control Belgium tweeted, “these will remain available free of charge at the pharmacy, but are not necessary in this specific case. Only take iodine on the advice of the government.”

In the event of a nuclear attack, iodine tablets would provide little protection according to Brooke Buddemeier, a health physicist and expert on radiation at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Radioiodine only makes up around 0.2 percent of the total exposure you would face outdoors, Buddemeier explained to Business Insider in 2017. 

Advertisement

Here’s what New York City thinks you should do instead.

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. Italy’s Draghi says still hopes to hold a G20 summit on Afghanistan
  2. Exclusive: Lebanon draft policy statement says government committed to IMF talks
  3. Egypt seeking $2 billion in syndicated loan – Emirates NBD
  4. U.S. natgas volatility jumps to a record as prices soar worldwide

Source Link: Why The Invasion Of Ukraine Has People Panic-Buying Iodine

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • Are There Body Parts You Can Live Without? Find Out More In Issue 37 Of CURIOUS – Out Now
  • New Study Unearths Humanity’s “Hidden” Crossings Out Of Africa
  • Trichonephila Clavipes: The Spider That Spins “Golden” Silk
  • The Southern Delta Aquariids And Alpha Capricornids Meteor Showers Will Dazzle The Skies Together Soon
  • Virus Found In Black-Eyed Pea Plants Could Be Used To Treat Cancer
  • Many People Have No Idea Where Oil Actually Comes From. It’s Not Dinosaurs
  • “World’s Rarest Elephant”: Meet Motty, The Only Known Elephant Hybrid
  • Missing 40 Percent Of Matter In The Universe Finally Discovered, Could We Be On Track For A Universal Cancer Vaccine, And Much More This Week
  • Solar Power Producing Heliostats Could Get A “Night Job” Finding Asteroids
  • COVID-19 Can Lead To Build Up Of Alzheimer’s-Linked Protein Clumps In Eyes And Brain
  • The Wild Life Of Snowflake, The Only Albino Gorilla Ever Known
  • Stunning Drone Footage Reveals Largest Turtle Nesting Site In The World, Containing 41,000 Females
  • New “Different Form” Of Type 1 Diabetes Found In Sub-Saharan African And Black American Patients
  • Neanderthals May Have Feasted On Maggots, Which They Harvested From Rotting Flesh
  • Common Cannabis Substitute May Be Far More Psychoactive Than Previously Thought
  • This Is The Most Bizarre International Border In The World
  • Earth Will Not Fall Into Darkness Next Week – But There Is An “Eclipse Of The Century” In 2027
  • 850,000-Year-Old Remains Suggest Prehistoric Child Was Decapitated And Eaten By Its Own Kind
  • How To Watch The ISS As It Crosses The US Night Sky In The Next Few Days
  • “Robo-Bunnies” Are Florida’s Newest Weapon Against Python Invaders
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version