What to Do About Japan’s Nuclear Radiation Fallout
Confusion reigns supreme. What to do? Potassium Iodine for the thyroid? What about Strontium and Cesium? They’ll be in the radioactive cloud too. Let’s dig in and found out what to do. (Read what I’m doing!)
WOW, THERE’S much confusion about how to protect oneself from radiation. The disaster in Japan has made the whole world focus on this, it seems – and appropriately so.
People on the west coast are concerned that a radioactive cloud will blow here from Japan and poison them. Potassium Iodine and anything else with “iod” in it has already flown off the shelves and is no longer available.
Since I’ve been blogging about the Japanese tragedy and am considered a health nut, I’ve been peppered with questions and concerns. What I need to do, then, is write this post. The intent is to debunk some stuff, clear up some stuff, and suggest… yes… some stuff.
My Disclaimer: I’m not an expert in this subject matter. I’ve just spent some focused time reading and evaluating information provided by TV and the Internet. If you are an expert and wish to correct something I write, please, please do in the Comments section below. I DO NOT want to perpetuate falsehoods!
Iodine vs Iodide vs Iodate???
This is the first and most significant confusion point that I’ve observed. Press reports have not differentiated between Iodine, Iodide and Iodate when speaking about what the Japanese government is distributing to its citizens to protect their thyroids; instead, their reporting uses these terms interchangeably.
They are different things.
What’s Iodine?
Perhaps as a child you got a small cut and your mother took a small bottle out of the bathroom cabinet and applied a strange smelling liquid with an eye dropper-like instrument to your cut. That’s Iodine.
If you could read back then and looked at the bottle it might have said, “Poison”, because if ingested this type of Iodine makes you sick.
There are forms of iodine, such as homeopathic remedies, that are ingestible, but they are not for protecting the thyroid against radiation, but for various health issues, including supporting thyroid health.
The pills that the Japanese government is distributing to its citizens are NOT Iodine pills. They ARE Potassium Iodide or Potassium Iodate pills.
What’s Iodide?
The chemist in you can read about Ioidide ions here, but what the rest of us need to know relative to protecting the thyroid from radioactivity is that our Iodide needs to be combined with Potassium; namely, Potassium Iodide (chemical name ‘KI‘).
You know KI as the ingredient added to your table salt to make it iodized salt. KI is approximately 76.5% iodine.
KI is often used in radioiodine-contamination emergencies (i.e., nuclear accidents) to “block” the thyroid’s uptake of radioiodine, iodine-131, which may be in the air after a nuclear explosion.
From ki4u.com, I get this:
Cresson H. Kearny, the author of Nuclear War Survival Skills, Original Edition Published September, 1979, by Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a Facility of the U.S. Department of Energy (Updated and Expanded 1987 Edition) states on page 111:
“There is no medicine that will effectively prevent nuclear radiations from damaging the human body cells that they strike.
However, a salt of the elements potassium and iodine, taken orally even in very small quantities 1/2 hour to 1 day before radioactive iodines are swallowed or inhaled, prevents about 99% of the damage to the thyroid gland that otherwise would result. The thyroid gland readily absorbs both non-radioactive and radioactive iodine, and normally it retains much of this element in either or both forms.
When ordinary, non-radioactive iodine is made available in the blood for absorption by the thyroid gland before any radioactive iodine is made available, the gland will absorb and retain so much that it becomes saturated with non-radioactive iodine. When saturated, the thyroid can absorb only about l% as much additional iodine, including radioactive forms that later may become available in the blood: then it is said to be blocked. (Excess iodine in the blood is rapidly eliminated by the action of the kidneys.)”
What’s Iodate?
Again, for the chemists in the house, an Iodate is a conjugate base of iodic acid.
For the rest of us, know that for our purposes, Iodate, like Iodide, needs Potassium to be useful against radiation.
Potassium Iodate (KIO3) has one more molecule of oxygen than its relative, Potassium Iodide (KI). Like KI, it’s designed to block radioiodine. As compared to KI, KIO3 was designed to have greater shelf life, have no bitter taste, and to be cheaper.
It’s KIO3 that is being supplied to the Japanese people. (<– read that link.) That said, there is controversy about which is better, KI or KIO3.
I’d be happy with either. Focusing on KI for no particular reason (I hope) is chemist Leigh Boerner explaining what happens when a nuclear reactor leaks:
“… if a nuclear reactor were to leak, iodine-131 might be in the air. Which people might breathe in. Which could get into their thyroids. Which could cause radiation poisoning in the short term. In the long term, breathing radioactive iodine can cause thyroid cancer, especially in kids.
To minimize the damage, people who may be/have been exposed to radiation from a power plant can take iodide pills. These work by saturating the thyroid with nice, non-radioactive iodide. That way, if any radioactive iodine does come along, the body won’t absorb it–the thyroid can only absorb a finite amount of iodine at a time.
If people can get these pills 48 hours before or eight hours after radiation exposure, it can reduce thyroid uptake of iodine-131 and decrease the risk of radiation-induced thyroid cancer.
I do want to point out that this will ONLY protect against internal iodine radiation poisoning. Not radiation from cesium-137 and strontium-90, extremely dangerous fission products of uranium-235.”
Thank you, Ms. Boerner… you let me segue to the next part of this post, How to Protect Yourself from the Other Radiation Bits – Strontium-90 and Cesium-137.
[By the way, after the Chernobyl disaster, radioactive iodine-131 in milk became a bigger problem than it in the air. Check out the study in this pdf file.]The Other Radiation Bits
If we were to have a radiation cloud envelope us, there’s more than our thyroid that would be in danger. Strontium-90 likes to clobber bones and hangs out for a long time. Cesium-137 tends to concentrate in muscles, but can excreted from the body fairly quickly. (Those two links are very informative, by the way.)
Cesium-137
My googling showed me that there’s a medicine with a funny name that works well at combating Cesium. It’s called “Prussian Blue”.
Prussian Blue is available only by prescription. The Center for Disease Control (“CDC”) has included Prussian Blue in the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS), a special collection of drugs and medical supplies that CDC keeps to treat people in an emergency.
You can read about how Prussian Blue works here.
If you don’t have, or can’t get a “script”, a natural approach might work.
Dr. Loretta Lanphier presents a long and good list of various food, vitamins and herbal cleansers that can assist with radiation detoxification.
One that I have some experience with is betonite, a medicinal liquid clay that’s ingested, and absorbs chemicals and toxins which are then eliminated along with everything else.
Dr. Lanphier’s Sea Salt, Baking Soda & Clay Formula:
“Add one pound of good quality sea salt and 1 pound of baking soda to chlorine-free water. Soak for 20 minutes and then rinse with cool water. Adding one pound of bentonite, or other safe clay, to the sea salt and baking soda will increase the removal of radiation. Some specialists who work with radioactive isotopes use this method to remove radiation from their body. For an abnormally high level of radiation exposure one can use this method three times a week for one month.”
In this article, the Live Well Naturally web site offers a similar list of natural detoxification measures as that offered by Dr, Lanpheir:
“Add 4 ounces of chlorine-free unboiled water to 1 ounce of bentonite clay. Let sit for 8 hours, stir and drink once a day. Make sure you drink plenty of chlorine-free water throughout the day. You can also use other forms of edible clay such as French green clay.”
Strontium-90
As I searched around, I didn’t find a protective agent for, or a specific detoxifier specifically tuned to Strontium. However, my research indicates that many of the therapies beneficial to protecting against or detoxifying Cesium contamination is useful for Strontium as well.
In either case, the protocols involve detoxification, either through foods, herbs, cleansers, or a combination thereof.
“Modifilian” is an example of a food that detoxifies.
Modifilian is a natural dietary supplement extracted from the richest type of brown seaweed — Laminaria japonica. (About 40 pounds of which is reduced down to one pound of Modifiliian.) This nutritional product is comprised of all the important organic elements found in seaweed.
Discovered by scientist after the Chernobyl disaster and applied to some of the Russian people who were poisoned with radioactivity, Modifilian was found to help detoxify the body of Strontium, and Cesium and protects the thyroid by covering it with iodine – a triple threat.
You can learn more about it here http://www.modifilan.com/research.html and here http://www.naturodoc.com/library/detox/Modifilan-about.htm
What I’m Doing
- I tune into a real-time Japanese TV station reporting constantly about the nuclear reactors and conditions in Japan.*
- I keep tabs on the National Radiation Map, a real-time update of radiation levels in America.
- I stay up to date with HuffPost, Yahoo News and regular old TV.
- I have stored a few days of non-perishable food, many gallons of potable water, flashlights, candels, medicine and stuff: See, Japan Tsunami Creates Health Concerns… Are You Prepared?
- I’m ready to ingest some expired (in 2008) Potassium Iodate (KIO3) until the Lugol’s Iodine my mother bought me and mailed to me arrives. (Dear ole Mom.) Lugol’s is more suitable to health issues other than radiation poisoning but it does have some KI in it, and it’s available, unlike KI and KIO3, so it should work. Won’t begin any of this, however, unless it’s apparent that a worrisome amount of radioactivity is jumping the Pacific Ocean. (I live on the coast of California.)
- I have bentonite, and sea salt and baking soda and various detox herbs ready and waiting.
- Finally, as a sometimes practitioner of yoga, I have the flexibility – if needed – to bend over and kiss my a_ _ goodbye.
Yep.
*By the way, just a glance at that National Radiation Map will make it obvious that people in the USA could have a problem with a nuclear breach too. We have many nuclear facilities. And earthquakes, floods, hurricanes and the like. Get prepared.
Remember, if I wrote something wrong or misleading here, weigh in at the Comments section below. And post this on Facebook or wherever if you think it might be useful. Lotsa confusion among us.
Last Updated on April 11, 2023 by Joe Garma
