The other day I was listening to the radio in the car and heard a little snippet about iodine being used as a treatment for nuclear radiation exposure. It has led me on an interesting little chain of thoughts.
When I was in elementary school our teachers would dispense iodine tablets to us every week. They were little round brown chewables. They tasted a little bit like chocolate and we really liked them. Sometimes when the teacher wasn't around we would try to get in her closet and sneak a few extra tablets. You could get in really big trouble if you got caught. That was during the time when the government was testing the atomic bomb in the Nevada desert. From my home in southern Utah, we could feel the blast, and some time later the cloud of radiation would drift over our community. We were unaware of it's potentially harmful effects. It wasn't until years later that sheep ranchers were able to prove that thousands of sheep died from its deadly fallout. It was many years before the government conceded that the astonishingly high number of deaths in the area from cancer might be attributed to radioactive fallout.
There were other things we didn't know at that time. We didn't know that iodine could protect you from radioactive fallout. If the body is deficient in iodine, it will absorb iodine from any source it can get it -- even radioactive iodine. They gave us iodine at school not to protect us from radioactive fallout, but to prevent goiters. I've been led to wonder how many more could have suffered from cancer if we hadn't received the iodine tablets.
Gratefully, I have never had cancer, but my thyroid began to malfunction in my early twenties and had to be removed. I wonder if there may have been a connection. The recent explosion of the nuclear plant in Japan has released radioactivity into the jet stream with nothing between it and North America but open water. Statistics show that 95% of Americans are iodine deficient. While the government is not saying anything about it, other sources are suggesting that it would be wise to take iodine to make sure the body is not iodine deficient and will not not allow radioactive iodine to bind in the body. You can read more about it here.
2 comments:
I don't want you to think I didn't read this post. I know how it feels to think nobody reads your blog. I don't think all that many people read mine, but then again, I kind of quit blogging for a while.
I talked to Brian about your post, and he had some very interesting information about radiation. I'll have to share it with you sometime when I am not in danger of turning into a pumpkin due to the late hour.
I remember the iodine pills too! Yes, they did taste good and we snuck them too.
Guess that people are hoarding the iodine potassium pills because our Area Medical Advisor has tried several different countries - no luck. Yes, the wind can carry all sorts of unknown problems. Glad I'm older - it takes decades to be deadly, I'm told. There are so many differing opinions and we are not being told everything, I'm sure.
Thanks for another trip down memory lane!
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