How well does Potassium Iodide work as a radiation blocker?!
Question:
How well does Potassium Iodide work as a radiation blocker?
Is Potassium Iodide an effective treatment for radiation poisoning?
Answers:
I've wondered myself. As the food chain brings radioactive iodine to the consumer long after a bomb detonates, it's hard to know when the contamination begins and ends. It goes to the grass, the cows eat the grass and we drink the milk and eat the beef that eats the grass. It must take time for the radioactivity to work its way out of the food chain. I think the kits are mainly intended to protect against airborne radioactivity for a short period of time. Long term use of it is probably hard on the thyroid.
Many people in Utah downwind from the Nevada nuclear test site now have their thyroid glands ripped out or burned out due to the radioactivity. Who really knows if this damage occured from breathing fallout or eating contaminated food. At least you can survive pretty well without a thyroid gland by taking daily thyroid medication - but it's not much fun.