Happy St. Patrick's Day to you all; hopefully you have some corned beef and beer (or at least beer) to get you through the evening.
If you or anyone close to you happens to be contemplating the purchase of
potassium iodine in the near future, may I strongly recommend that you
do not add to the uneducated, panic-driven run on such capsules unless you are living in the eastern half of Japan or intend to join the relief effort there within the next six weeks. No, there is no nuclear cloud coming to California. Hawaii is absolutely safe (watch out for that Kilauea, though).
This crap:
...is exactly that; crap. A lulzy hoax born on 4chan. So many idiots have been trolled by these images and other hype that
now there is a shortage of potassium iodine for the people who actually need it in Japan.
There are several hundred technicians and engineers being cycled in and out of the nuclear plant in Fukushima right now, 24 hours a day, working tirelessly to stop the reactors from going into full meltdown. They are the only ones in the world thus far exposed to any levels of radiation that could be deemed dangerous by modern medicine. Many of these men and women have lost their homes and their families to the quake and subsequent tsunami, but they are still volunteering to go into harm's way to avert a third disaster, doing all that they can to save their fellow citizens. The least we can do is not buy up all the pills they need to protect themselves from thyroid cancer.
Please spread the word. Tell people to cut this crap out. If you have iodine pills,
contact your local branch of the Red Cross for a way to donate them. Thank you very, very much.
