Isn't this preying on the unknowledgeable trying to sell them a product they almost certainly don't need? Buying this stuff in the US is due to hysteria over the nuclear accident in Japan. It's not required, or even desireable here.

I guess if people want it, not matter how baseless their reasons are for wanting it, might as well sell it to them. Everyone goes away happy.

I don't know if I'd go that far. If I lived downwind of a reactor, I'd want some. Effects are reduced as you haven't built up the KI level in thyroid prior to exposure, but it will help. Just like a modern gas mask and proper filters (or a blower), for most people, they aren't needed, but for some people, yeah, they are needed.

I've seen advertising that is potentially deceptive. Listing potassium iodide as 'anti-radiation pills' is a gross oversimplification and it is, IMHO, potentially dangerous.

Potassium iodide is useful in blocking absorption by the thyroid of radioactive iodine. It doesn't stop, block or absorb radiation, and if the radioactive material you are exposed to is not iodine it has no protective effect at all.

Assuming what they are selling is real, a big assumption, it is a potentially useful product in very narrow set of hazardous situations.

I personally find it disconcerting that some people are hawking an otherwise reputable product with false and misleading advertising. Horrible that gouging and fakes are not uncommon.

It's crass commercialism. But, what the hell, we live in a capitalistic economy.

Let's just say my opinion of the vendor went down a notch or two.....

I take standard off the shelf 'old fart' daily multi-vitamins. They contain 100% of the daily requirement for iodine.

"ETS front page: potassium iodine headlined in ad?"

I can't find it. Was it IODINE or IODIDE? There's a difference.

Sue

The nuclear plant closest to me gives out potassium iodine tabs free to the people w/i a certain radius of the plant. No need to buy them.

So you don't get cancer of the thyroid, big whoopee. If I find myself in a situation needing this tablets, I am beating feet.

Ive seen worse statements such as "It helps your thyroid fight off the radiation greatly" If I recall It just floods it with one type so the other type isnt absorbed which is majorly different.

My mistake. It was indeed "iodide". I'm sure there's a big difference, but I'm not a chemist so I can't tell you what it is. However, we're talking about the treatment sometimes used for exposure to certain types of radioactivity. Whether that happens to be iodide or iodine.

Below is the ad I was speaking of. At the time I saw it, it was first up on the "Portal Page", which is where my browser goes first thing when I hit the ETS forums. So "front page" was probably the incorrect term for me to use too. Despite my mistakes, I think my point regarding advertising of this stuff in the US is still valid, even though I look a little stupid at the moment for using incorrect terminology.

http://forums.equipped.org/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=222486#Post222486