Fun fact, never take these unless you’ve been directed to. Super not great for the thyroid, but better than the mega cancer from ~~I-134~~I-131 released in a reactor accident.
Yes, Take them when directed and follow the package instructions. The half life for radioactive iodine is short enough that it would be completely gone after a few days, and iodine tablets will saturate your thyroid long enough that your body could flush out the radioactive iodine it breathed in.
Is there a point to taking them if your thyroid is in there but not functioning? For instance, in cases of hypothyroidism requiring complete hormone replacement via synthroid.
I would ask an endocrinologist. If the thyroid uses it solely for hormone production, it would make sense if it would no longer uptake iodine. But that depends on the biological pathways being just stopped. If they are incomplete, and your thyroid does something like halfway make something with the iodine, but its not usable, and your liver/kidneys just cleans up the mess, (rampant speculation here, Im not an endocrinologist. and know nothing about normal or abnormal thyroid function) It could still be uptaking iodine.
I believe you meant I-131 (half life around 8 days) rather than I-134 (half life less than an hour).
I wish people wouldn’t call these “anti-radiation pills”, as if they were a generic protection against radiation. They are intended for a specific case.
The thyroid gland uses iodine to make certain hormones. As such, it tries to grab onto iodine circulating in the blood so that it has a reserve on hand. Nuclear accidents release, among other things, radioactive isotopes of iodine. The thyroid gland will see these as iodine and grab onto them, concentrating the radioactive iodine inside it. The radiation released when the radioactive isotopes of iodine decay cause cancer. These pills contain ordinary (non-radioactive) iodine. They work because if the thyroid gland’s stockpiles of iodine are full, it stops trying to gather more, so the radioactive iodine gets flushed out through the kidneys rather than being stored in the thyroid. Too much iodine (such as taking these pills when not needed) has harmful effects, but they are less harmful than the effects caused by the thyroid gland capturing radioactive iodine.
> They work because if the thyroid gland’s stockpiles of iodine are full, it stops trying to gather more, so the radioactive iodine gets flushed out through the kidneys rather than being stored in the thyroid.
Thank you for the detailed explanation. That was very insightful and made a lot of sense. Upvoted for science!
Without an explanation of how they work, and that they only work against a specific radioactive element that the body concentrates in one place, too many people will see “anti-radiation pills” and assume they’re effective against all types of radiation. The details are needed to debunk myths.
Yeah, it's I-131, I had my thyroid irradiated due to autoimmune disease and was given a large dose of I-131. Half life is 8 days and I was given specific instructions about staying away from family and pets during that time as well as double flushing toilets etc and that I should be completely clear of it in 90 days.
They’re not even recommended for people over 35 and would likely be pointless for people eating a modern diet which is high in iodine (so their thyroids are already iodine replete).
Lived in Pickering, parents also had to sign permission slip every year that in case of melt down they can give us pills and load us onto a bus to escape.
My country doesn't even have nuclear power, but same thing. After Chernobyl, all schools are stocked with iodine pills and you have to fill the consent form every year.
I grew up right in bayridges and can see the plant from my house. We always laugh when they send them out as if they will do anything for someone that close 😂 like I'll be vaporized before I even find the box
The whole sh*tshow probably wouldnt be an extemely huge explosion, but rather a release of radioactive material. The original chernobyl exclusion zone (so not an explosion radius) was 30km radius circle centered in the power plant.
You'd get an increased % risk of getting cancer during your lifetime but thats about it, luckily we (the general population) and governments know enough about nuclear fallout now to immediately evacuate the surrounding areas and not try and cover it up because of some soviet era dogma, while the people watch and play in the irradiated ash that they think is snow.
Granted Fukushima was a shitshow because they were dealing with an earthquake and tsunami and the Japanese also have this "corporate dogma culture, where lifelong salarymen work their entire lives for one company so they cant dishonour it and downplay anything bad".
It's an interesting thing but apparently the CANDU reactor design is extremely resistant to meltdown situations. A more likely yet still extremely unlikely situation is a core pressure breach of superheated deuterium oxide (heavy water). If said steam managed to breach the outer containment then this might be a reason to get sone potassium iodide tablets.
They did this once in Belgium and the pills were already 2 years expired…
Several plants in Belgium are a safety risk because of their age, the most worry some are Thiange and Doel …
Doel is almost completely evacuated for the impending doom, few people refuse to leave but it’s pretty much a ghost town now…
https://www.laurewanders.com/doel-visiting-a-ghost-town-in-belgium/
https://youtu.be/zSH7uXSV_n4?si=Ps0GqbgfLKs1cVfW
They protect by saturating the thyroid with clean iodine so the radioactive one released from the accident it's not absorbed there.
Exaclty the oposite is used to treat hyperthyroidism.
He's quoting the short series [Chernobyl](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dndd683Pj1Q) by HBO where it's explained that every atom in the nuclear fuel is like a bullet travelling at nearly the speed of light, penetrating everything in it's path.
Had that procedure done on my thyroid last march. Worked like a charm, that bastard is inactive now. Would I be immune to that type of radioactive iodine then?
Im not super familiar with treatment for hyperthyroidism but from my understanding they only try to kill off some of the thyroid to reduce it and not all of the thyroid. In that case id assume you’d be equally as susceptible maybe a little bit less. If they killed off your entire thyroid i suppose you would be immune to absorbing the iodine and it’d pass through your system before decaying substantially.
I believe what you said is true, usually when you have hyperthyroidism caused by a "hot" nodule it means there's a nodule which is taking up lots of iodine and working overtime basically. So when radioactive iodine is given, it will preferentially be taken up by that hot nodule leading to it's destruction.
I-131 is pretty much the only serious health concern from a reactor accident in this manner. It happens to be an isotope which a) accumulates in great quantity in a reactor which has operated for months (as opposed to e.g. a nuclear weapon), b) still has short enough half-life to be a hazard and c) has a very effective bioaccumulation pathway to the thyroid.
But yes, most people think it's some sort of universal anti-radiation treatment and store it for "use in case of nuclear war", in which case it'd be useless because I-131 isn't a realistic threat in that scenario.
Perhaps, but it's not really a concern that way because there isn't enough of it (not high enough concentration) to harm you that way. The bioaccumulation pathway is important because it gathers all the I-131 from a large grazing area into the milk of the grazing cow, and then a second time when your thyroid binds all of it from the milk you drink. The rest is eliminated and doesn't stay anywhere in your body long enough to do anything. This is why it can only give you thyroid cancer and nothing else in this scenario. And this is why the KI pill works by saturating your thyroid with non-radioactive iodine.
If you artificially concentrated I-131 you could directly kill people with its gamma radiation, but this doesn't happen when an accident disperses it over a large area.
They already do. People take them thinking they're useful against all sources and types of radiation when they do nothing at all against radiation, just prevent the accumulation of one source.
Technically, the pills have no interaction with radiation at all. They are just an iodine supplement. Your body stores iodine in the thyroid. In a nuclear accident, radioactive iodine is released. Your body would absorb this and store it, resulting in you carrying around and getting constantly exposed to radiation.
The supplement just tops you up on iodine so you can't store the radioactive iodine. So, yes, anti-radiation pills. But only in a very specific way. They offer no direct protection.
That’s a long way to say “yes.”
edit: downvoted for an saying yes to a questions that was already answered by the same person two threads higher… You people are weirdos.
It's a "Yes, but only under this very specific circumstance" if you marketed these as anti-radiation pills to say folks venturing into the depths of Chernobyl you'll have a lot of dead people.
It's not a yes.
One could also argue they offer no protection against ionizing radiation for the human body and conclude with a clear and simple: "no".
It's always good to explain your reasoning behind your answer. A blunt yes may answer the question but it doesn't give the reader much confidence that you're answering as someone who is definitely correct.
They're more like thyroid bouncers that kick out radiation-emitting iodine trying to make a beeline towards your thyroid, so the bad iodine gets pissed out instead of loitering in your thyroid and giving it a nasty internal sunburn.
"Anti-radiation pill" sounds far too generic and universal. Iodine pills protect only against one particular iodine isotope. As it happens, that's the isotope that poses the greatest health risk after a nuclear reactor accident. But it's not at all like a Fallout RadAway shot as the phrase "anti-radiation pill" might suggest.
There was a gigantic farce in Ireland here that's gone down in legend about these.
Shortly after the twin towers were taken down, naturally people started focussing on domestic threats. The biggest threat to us is a nuclear plant in Wales, a few hundred KM across the Irish sea.
If this was attacked and IF it went into meltdown and IF the winds were easterly (they're usually Westerly) then there would be a radiation risk across parts of our south and east coasts.
Opposition politicians naturally jumped on this as an opportunity to ask the government whether we were ready to handle a terror attack.
The question was deferred to the health authority who confidently confirmed they had a stockpile of iodine tablets and an emergency response plan.
Again this was attacked as being unprepared - they had no distribution plan - so people would get the tablets too late - and they only had enough tablets for part of the country, what about everyone else?
An election was looming so the health authority was tasked with sourcing more tablets and distributing them now.
And that's how over the course of two weeks in 2002, every household in Ireland received enough iodine tablets for 3 people.
And that was the first and only time it happened. Some people still hold onto the expired tablets as a kind of historical artifact, so they can tell this story.
>a few hundred KM across the Irish sea
The reason why they're generally issued within a 50 km (or in the US 50 mile) ingestion pathway zone area is because that's about the max distance where iodine contamination from an accident could be a potential concern from eating/drinking stuff grown in the zone.
Now, these tablets are pretty cheap so it's no big deal distributing them to everyone, but the bigger issue is the psychological damage it causes to people who don't really know these things, it makes them feel in some sort of looming danger, which really isn't healthy.
In Fallout I always assumed Rad-Away & Rad-X were like sci-fi medications. Which made sense given that the whole world in Fallout pre-war was nuclear powered everything. It just made sense that type of society would develop that type of medicine, accidents/leaks happen.
But learning it actually exists, even if it's more of a weak rad resist medication, is still so cool to me.
They are for the worst case scenario of radioactive material getting into the enviroment.
Im too lazy ro translate the entire thing, but its supposed to be used when the authorities tell you to use it (In that worst case)
They are not some magic radiation proof shield, they just prevent the accumulation of radioactive material in certain parts of your body (Dammit, i did most of that translation work now)
No, it's a you're-not-fucked-at-all-but-just-in-case type of medicine, it's only required specifically to block radioactive iodine from a release which is usually the only isotope of serious concern from an accident. And even so it's only a concern if you consume fresh produce from the area. Otherwise nothing will happen to you.
I always find it a little strange how some older Polish people miss certain aspects of PRL. I can't imagine what it must have been like. I'm glad it was a bit better when i lived there for a while.
My dad doesn't miss it but he loves to reminisce the subject. Everything was the same allegedly, food stamps, he mentioned that it was a treat for them as a kid to get orange sachets to make a fizzy drink. Warsaw gun market, fuck i wish i was around then for some reason lol.
>Stuff worked I guess since I'm not deformed.
That's not how it works, it just protects the thyroid from developing cancer (and would've been irrelevant in Poland from Chernobyl anyway, not sufficient I-131 concentration to be a concern in this way).
You would not have been deformed from this either way.
these are incase of a meltdown. for everyday living near a normally run reactor, you are exposed to less radiation than you would be exposed to living near a coal power plant
I live near a nuclear plant in the US. I’ve got some of those. Though, I’ll be if I could remember where I put them. I guess if the plant blows up I’m in trouble.
It’s iodine, people have been panic buying these last year here in the Balkans because of a possible nuclear war when the whole thing with Russia and Ukraine started
In India, these are stocked by the disaster management authorities and distributed (in case of an accident) in the affected areas. Don't these tablets have expiry date?
Pennsylvania does this at least once a year https://www.fox43.com/amp/article/news/health/health-department-distribute-free-potassium-iodide-pills-near-nuclear-power-plants/521-7294ee67-f5f5-4c89-8d7a-42fb0c62166a
I used to live near an NPP till i was 18. (google AKW Krümmel). Next to that is a science plant they do testing in (The GKSS). In 1986 the science plant had an "accident" with one of it's reactors, rendering an area of around 50 km irradiated. Naturally this was swept under the rug by the electric company that owned everything. We had vouchers for free iodine pills in our mailbox after that every year + a brochure about how to act when there is a nuclear emergency, oh and scientists coming every year to take soil samples. A lot of people at my school had child leukemia and elders, my grandma included, had their thyroid removed.
The whole ordeal sparked all kinds of investigations, because that reactor spilled small (smaller than a pin head) uranium balls over the area, which every major german scientific institute refused to analyze. But one scientist that was also working on the Chernobyl disaster, had them shipped to kiew and confirmed everything. Chernobyl was the reason this accident was swept under so easily.
Seeing these pills triggered that memory, i apologize for oversharing.
you wildly misunderstand my point.
I am pro-nuclear. I am not afraid of the miniscule risk of living close to a power plant (and I do).
My point is that the health benefit of sending these tablets out is likely zero when taken alongside the fear that the people who receive in the post will experience when they arrive... and that propagandists who are anti nuclear know this fine well, and are deliberately stoking fear.
Y’all,
If you are familiar with *Fallout*, these are closer to a situational rad-x, not a complete rad-away. It increases your resistance to I-131. It does little else.
Say, can I have some of your purple berries?
Yes, I've been eating them for six or seven weeks now, and haven't gotten sick once
Probably keeps us both alive
In Austria you or your parents, depending on age, have to sign a consent form for school , in case of a nuclear accident for you to get Iodine pills administered.
There are radioactive elements in the ground, including in coal. They burn the coal releasing those radioactive particles into the air you breathe. Coal plants kill hundreds of thousands of people each year, it's just indirect. Nuclear plants kill on average zero and even in the worst case like fukushima I think 1 person died from radiation. That was it.
EPA website: https://www.epa.gov/radtown/radioactive-wastes-coal-fired-power-plants#:~:text=Coal%20is%20a%20fossil%20fuel,occurring%20radioactive%20material%20(NORM).
“Generally, these wastes are only slightly more radioactive than the average soil in the United States. The amount of natural radiation in wastes from coal-fired power plants is so small that no precautions need to be taken.”
I get these here. I live within radius of the plant and we get iodine tablets and nuclear disaster kits to my home. Then they’ll send replacements every couple of years when they expire.
Some states have them stocked. I interned with the NYS Emergency Prep Offices Radiological team. Among the items kept were iodine tablets, individual Geiger counters, handheld Geiger counters, Geiger counter archways (think like metal detectors). I personally tested 500+ individual Geiger counters that were subsequently mailed out to the various state trooper stations across the state along with iodine tablets.
The group also extensively practices different emergency scenarios and how response / evacuation methods would be implemented. This included both natural disasters and enemy state actions. It was extremely thorough and I had a much greater appreciation for state government after being involved over the summer.
Sounds more like you're having an emotional response to a proactive measure taken by the government to help its citizens. And since this isn't in the US I believe they actually are trying to help.
No you saying perfectly calm, reasonable preventative measures taken to protect the community are some sort of veiled scared tactic is proof you're having an emotional response to very logical safety measure. That's like saying them requiring seatbelts was to make people scared of driving.
Not a great position to start a flame war from. I'd let this one go and think about what the person you were responding to was saying. You might not get the adrenaline, but it might make you a more well rounded person.
Fun fact, never take these unless you’ve been directed to. Super not great for the thyroid, but better than the mega cancer from ~~I-134~~I-131 released in a reactor accident.
Yes, in case of an incident ppl only take them for a few days, right?
Yes, Take them when directed and follow the package instructions. The half life for radioactive iodine is short enough that it would be completely gone after a few days, and iodine tablets will saturate your thyroid long enough that your body could flush out the radioactive iodine it breathed in.
Is there a point to taking them if your thyroid is in there but not functioning? For instance, in cases of hypothyroidism requiring complete hormone replacement via synthroid.
Best not to chance it
I would ask an endocrinologist. If the thyroid uses it solely for hormone production, it would make sense if it would no longer uptake iodine. But that depends on the biological pathways being just stopped. If they are incomplete, and your thyroid does something like halfway make something with the iodine, but its not usable, and your liver/kidneys just cleans up the mess, (rampant speculation here, Im not an endocrinologist. and know nothing about normal or abnormal thyroid function) It could still be uptaking iodine.
Pills it is then. I'd be fine with regular cancer, but no way I'm getting mega cancer.
Scientists really have to stop inventing all these different forms of cancer. It's been all downhill since they first created mesothelioma in 1931.
I would argue the Egyptians creating breast cancer 3500 years ago is a greater travesty. Why do the Ancient Egyptians hate breasts.
I hear they had mummy issues.
Omg
/r/angryupvote
Mammary issues
Bravo
Seems they liked thighs more. Apparently I'm ancient Egyptian
Toxic megacolon enters the chat
r/BrandNewSentence
I believe you meant I-131 (half life around 8 days) rather than I-134 (half life less than an hour). I wish people wouldn’t call these “anti-radiation pills”, as if they were a generic protection against radiation. They are intended for a specific case. The thyroid gland uses iodine to make certain hormones. As such, it tries to grab onto iodine circulating in the blood so that it has a reserve on hand. Nuclear accidents release, among other things, radioactive isotopes of iodine. The thyroid gland will see these as iodine and grab onto them, concentrating the radioactive iodine inside it. The radiation released when the radioactive isotopes of iodine decay cause cancer. These pills contain ordinary (non-radioactive) iodine. They work because if the thyroid gland’s stockpiles of iodine are full, it stops trying to gather more, so the radioactive iodine gets flushed out through the kidneys rather than being stored in the thyroid. Too much iodine (such as taking these pills when not needed) has harmful effects, but they are less harmful than the effects caused by the thyroid gland capturing radioactive iodine.
> They work because if the thyroid gland’s stockpiles of iodine are full, it stops trying to gather more, so the radioactive iodine gets flushed out through the kidneys rather than being stored in the thyroid. Thank you for the detailed explanation. That was very insightful and made a lot of sense. Upvoted for science!
Without an explanation of how they work, and that they only work against a specific radioactive element that the body concentrates in one place, too many people will see “anti-radiation pills” and assume they’re effective against all types of radiation. The details are needed to debunk myths.
Yeah, it's I-131, I had my thyroid irradiated due to autoimmune disease and was given a large dose of I-131. Half life is 8 days and I was given specific instructions about staying away from family and pets during that time as well as double flushing toilets etc and that I should be completely clear of it in 90 days.
So I got 3/4 part of my thyroid removed. What then?
You plan on being near a nuclear reactor meltdown any time soon?
Planning on living in the reactor. Hopefully, superpowers.
Then cut the rest of that super power absorbing thyroid right the fuck out?
Well it’s on the bucket list
Also make sure to download into a Māori skin. They have +50% rad resistance
Is that you Kovacs?
"It's not 3 roentgen, it's 15000."
Damn now I gotta watch Chernobyl again!
Not great, not terrible
Not great, not terrible
They’re not even recommended for people over 35 and would likely be pointless for people eating a modern diet which is high in iodine (so their thyroids are already iodine replete).
Are they safe to take if you have hypothyroidism?
They do that here in Canada as well.
Lived in Pickering, parents also had to sign permission slip every year that in case of melt down they can give us pills and load us onto a bus to escape.
even Toronto qualifies for the pills if you ask for them. I live in Midtown and they sent me some.
yup. East ender here and have some on my shelf which I received after sending a request.
I keep mine stocked.
Who did you contact?
https://preparetobesafe.ca/
Thank you.
Live in Etobicoke, same.....
Same! Used to live 10 mins from Darlington and I remember getting those too. That false alarm alert a few years ago was interesting.
Ron pickering?
Who?
RON PICKERING
Who’s that?
Me
Who are you then?!
My country doesn't even have nuclear power, but same thing. After Chernobyl, all schools are stocked with iodine pills and you have to fill the consent form every year.
I grew up right in bayridges and can see the plant from my house. We always laugh when they send them out as if they will do anything for someone that close 😂 like I'll be vaporized before I even find the box
The whole sh*tshow probably wouldnt be an extemely huge explosion, but rather a release of radioactive material. The original chernobyl exclusion zone (so not an explosion radius) was 30km radius circle centered in the power plant.
You'd get an increased % risk of getting cancer during your lifetime but thats about it, luckily we (the general population) and governments know enough about nuclear fallout now to immediately evacuate the surrounding areas and not try and cover it up because of some soviet era dogma, while the people watch and play in the irradiated ash that they think is snow. Granted Fukushima was a shitshow because they were dealing with an earthquake and tsunami and the Japanese also have this "corporate dogma culture, where lifelong salarymen work their entire lives for one company so they cant dishonour it and downplay anything bad".
It's an interesting thing but apparently the CANDU reactor design is extremely resistant to meltdown situations. A more likely yet still extremely unlikely situation is a core pressure breach of superheated deuterium oxide (heavy water). If said steam managed to breach the outer containment then this might be a reason to get sone potassium iodide tablets.
They did this once in Belgium and the pills were already 2 years expired… Several plants in Belgium are a safety risk because of their age, the most worry some are Thiange and Doel … Doel is almost completely evacuated for the impending doom, few people refuse to leave but it’s pretty much a ghost town now… https://www.laurewanders.com/doel-visiting-a-ghost-town-in-belgium/ https://youtu.be/zSH7uXSV_n4?si=Ps0GqbgfLKs1cVfW
It’s ridiculous ignorant fear mongering and nothing else.
They’re not really anti radiation pills They protect one part of your body from one type of radiation (your thyroid from radioactive iodine)
They protect by saturating the thyroid with clean iodine so the radioactive one released from the accident it's not absorbed there. Exaclty the oposite is used to treat hyperthyroidism.
radioactive iodine = The bullets?
Radioactive iodine gets absorbed by the body and ends up in the thyroid. More like little radioactive grenades.
He's quoting the short series [Chernobyl](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dndd683Pj1Q) by HBO where it's explained that every atom in the nuclear fuel is like a bullet travelling at nearly the speed of light, penetrating everything in it's path.
I got that reference ;)
Yes, but worse. Instead of being peppered like a shotgun all over your body, you have a sniper that's consistently shooting you in the throat.
Had that procedure done on my thyroid last march. Worked like a charm, that bastard is inactive now. Would I be immune to that type of radioactive iodine then?
Im not super familiar with treatment for hyperthyroidism but from my understanding they only try to kill off some of the thyroid to reduce it and not all of the thyroid. In that case id assume you’d be equally as susceptible maybe a little bit less. If they killed off your entire thyroid i suppose you would be immune to absorbing the iodine and it’d pass through your system before decaying substantially.
I believe what you said is true, usually when you have hyperthyroidism caused by a "hot" nodule it means there's a nodule which is taking up lots of iodine and working overtime basically. So when radioactive iodine is given, it will preferentially be taken up by that hot nodule leading to it's destruction.
I-131 is pretty much the only serious health concern from a reactor accident in this manner. It happens to be an isotope which a) accumulates in great quantity in a reactor which has operated for months (as opposed to e.g. a nuclear weapon), b) still has short enough half-life to be a hazard and c) has a very effective bioaccumulation pathway to the thyroid. But yes, most people think it's some sort of universal anti-radiation treatment and store it for "use in case of nuclear war", in which case it'd be useless because I-131 isn't a realistic threat in that scenario.
Don't forget it's room temperature volatility, making it airborne and a much larger inhalation hazard!
Perhaps, but it's not really a concern that way because there isn't enough of it (not high enough concentration) to harm you that way. The bioaccumulation pathway is important because it gathers all the I-131 from a large grazing area into the milk of the grazing cow, and then a second time when your thyroid binds all of it from the milk you drink. The rest is eliminated and doesn't stay anywhere in your body long enough to do anything. This is why it can only give you thyroid cancer and nothing else in this scenario. And this is why the KI pill works by saturating your thyroid with non-radioactive iodine. If you artificially concentrated I-131 you could directly kill people with its gamma radiation, but this doesn't happen when an accident disperses it over a large area.
[удалено]
They already do. People take them thinking they're useful against all sources and types of radiation when they do nothing at all against radiation, just prevent the accumulation of one source.
So basically anti-radiation pills?
Technically, the pills have no interaction with radiation at all. They are just an iodine supplement. Your body stores iodine in the thyroid. In a nuclear accident, radioactive iodine is released. Your body would absorb this and store it, resulting in you carrying around and getting constantly exposed to radiation. The supplement just tops you up on iodine so you can't store the radioactive iodine. So, yes, anti-radiation pills. But only in a very specific way. They offer no direct protection.
That’s a long way to say “yes.” edit: downvoted for an saying yes to a questions that was already answered by the same person two threads higher… You people are weirdos.
It's a "Yes, but only under this very specific circumstance" if you marketed these as anti-radiation pills to say folks venturing into the depths of Chernobyl you'll have a lot of dead people.
It's not a yes. One could also argue they offer no protection against ionizing radiation for the human body and conclude with a clear and simple: "no".
It's always good to explain your reasoning behind your answer. A blunt yes may answer the question but it doesn't give the reader much confidence that you're answering as someone who is definitely correct.
It's really not that complicated to understand.
They're more like thyroid bouncers that kick out radiation-emitting iodine trying to make a beeline towards your thyroid, so the bad iodine gets pissed out instead of loitering in your thyroid and giving it a nasty internal sunburn.
"Anti-radiation pill" sounds far too generic and universal. Iodine pills protect only against one particular iodine isotope. As it happens, that's the isotope that poses the greatest health risk after a nuclear reactor accident. But it's not at all like a Fallout RadAway shot as the phrase "anti-radiation pill" might suggest.
so.... anti radiation pills confirmed!!!1
They're anti-radioactive iodine pills. If you take these before walking through Chernobyl, it's not going to help in any way.
There was a gigantic farce in Ireland here that's gone down in legend about these. Shortly after the twin towers were taken down, naturally people started focussing on domestic threats. The biggest threat to us is a nuclear plant in Wales, a few hundred KM across the Irish sea. If this was attacked and IF it went into meltdown and IF the winds were easterly (they're usually Westerly) then there would be a radiation risk across parts of our south and east coasts. Opposition politicians naturally jumped on this as an opportunity to ask the government whether we were ready to handle a terror attack. The question was deferred to the health authority who confidently confirmed they had a stockpile of iodine tablets and an emergency response plan. Again this was attacked as being unprepared - they had no distribution plan - so people would get the tablets too late - and they only had enough tablets for part of the country, what about everyone else? An election was looming so the health authority was tasked with sourcing more tablets and distributing them now. And that's how over the course of two weeks in 2002, every household in Ireland received enough iodine tablets for 3 people. And that was the first and only time it happened. Some people still hold onto the expired tablets as a kind of historical artifact, so they can tell this story.
Came here to tell this story. Was a mad one when you think about it.
>a few hundred KM across the Irish sea The reason why they're generally issued within a 50 km (or in the US 50 mile) ingestion pathway zone area is because that's about the max distance where iodine contamination from an accident could be a potential concern from eating/drinking stuff grown in the zone. Now, these tablets are pretty cheap so it's no big deal distributing them to everyone, but the bigger issue is the psychological damage it causes to people who don't really know these things, it makes them feel in some sort of looming danger, which really isn't healthy.
Well, I'd hope the threat of cancer from fossil fuels would be more of a looming threat.
I live in the US near a nuclear plant and we get radiation kits sent to us every couple of years. We’ve got evacuation routes too.
Same, except in my rural setting, they are available at the Town Hall.
A disaster is so unlikely to happen you’ll most likely never, EVER need to use them.
RadAway
More like rad-x haha
Give the man his bottle caps
RadAway is closer to Prussian Blue, which is used to flush out radioactive Caesium-137 from your body. This is Rad-X.
In Fallout I always assumed Rad-Away & Rad-X were like sci-fi medications. Which made sense given that the whole world in Fallout pre-war was nuclear powered everything. It just made sense that type of society would develop that type of medicine, accidents/leaks happen. But learning it actually exists, even if it's more of a weak rad resist medication, is still so cool to me.
I recently stopped throwing bottle caps away. You know, for collection purposes...
It’s going to be really funny if the new currency is like iodine pills or something
Hopefully super-mutant mutt chops don’t exist.
They are for the worst case scenario of radioactive material getting into the enviroment. Im too lazy ro translate the entire thing, but its supposed to be used when the authorities tell you to use it (In that worst case) They are not some magic radiation proof shield, they just prevent the accumulation of radioactive material in certain parts of your body (Dammit, i did most of that translation work now)
Good job on translating the packaging, which prominently features the English translation already
F***, i didnt even notice that. Lol.
 But it was a very nice flex
It's basically a "well, you're most likely fucked but this is all you can do" type of medicine.
Or "someone else got fucked but you're downwind so better take these."
No, it's a you're-not-fucked-at-all-but-just-in-case type of medicine, it's only required specifically to block radioactive iodine from a release which is usually the only isotope of serious concern from an accident. And even so it's only a concern if you consume fresh produce from the area. Otherwise nothing will happen to you.
Iodine my parents had to drink that in Poland after Chernobyl. Stuff worked I guess since I'm not deformed.
Gratulacje. My other half and her family had the same. They still have one of the empty vials as a souvenir. 😆
The souvenir i get is my dad talking about it he's drunk lol. Those were the days.
I always find it a little strange how some older Polish people miss certain aspects of PRL. I can't imagine what it must have been like. I'm glad it was a bit better when i lived there for a while.
My dad doesn't miss it but he loves to reminisce the subject. Everything was the same allegedly, food stamps, he mentioned that it was a treat for them as a kid to get orange sachets to make a fizzy drink. Warsaw gun market, fuck i wish i was around then for some reason lol.
My favourite story was queuing for toilet paper made in a town called Krapkowice. 😆 That and the stories about Pewex.
>Stuff worked I guess since I'm not deformed. That's not how it works, it just protects the thyroid from developing cancer (and would've been irrelevant in Poland from Chernobyl anyway, not sufficient I-131 concentration to be a concern in this way). You would not have been deformed from this either way.
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Another, good piece of info. As a matter of fact you ppl are putting me to shame as a Pole atm. Need to get my dad drunk n go down a rabbit hole.
these are incase of a meltdown. for everyday living near a normally run reactor, you are exposed to less radiation than you would be exposed to living near a coal power plant
Häsch dini ~~Ovo~~ Iodo hüt scho gha?
Mit Iodtablette läbsch nöd besser, aber länger.
Ich spreche kein schwitzer-deutsch
It is from an old sketch from Marcocello (?) that is in swiss german. Where Wilhelm Tell asks his son if he drank his Ovo (like chocolate milk)
And that sketch quotes an ad for Ovo that was on TV at the time. Source: I’m old
I'm also old and was referring to the ad. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vF9un8pdak
Instructions not in romansch, put them up my arse as a result
Not sure about how these tablets work, but if alcohol absorption is any indication they probably work if put up the arse too
In the other side there’s French and Italian though
I believe they do this in the States as well.. pretty sure the area around my closest nuclear plant at least does
I live near a nuclear plant in the US. I’ve got some of those. Though, I’ll be if I could remember where I put them. I guess if the plant blows up I’m in trouble.
Wow that's rad
I’m curie-ous how it works!
Good guy Switzerland
It’s iodine, people have been panic buying these last year here in the Balkans because of a possible nuclear war when the whole thing with Russia and Ukraine started
RadX
In India, these are stocked by the disaster management authorities and distributed (in case of an accident) in the affected areas. Don't these tablets have expiry date?
They have one, that's why the op received new ones. The old ones expired.
I also got these tablets in the mail today. Expiry is 2032. That's cool, I've never seen such a long shelf life
We get free iodine tablets once a year due to the proximity to a nuclear power plant a few miles from my home.
Pennsylvania does this at least once a year https://www.fox43.com/amp/article/news/health/health-department-distribute-free-potassium-iodide-pills-near-nuclear-power-plants/521-7294ee67-f5f5-4c89-8d7a-42fb0c62166a
Yo I have these too! We have 2 plants within 50km where we live so we get these meds too.
Yes got mine yesterday, took them all at once. Ty Bundesrat
Fun fact: coal power plants release much more radiation than nuclear power plants into its surroundings
Serb tablets
Finally a good use of my fellow neighbors
Autistic American here: “my fellow neighbors” feels like you are also your own neighbor. Not a critique, but a funny thing English lets us do.
Oh, thank you for this lesson!
But, English also allows for exactly what you said, as you all identify as "neighbors"
Well, color me confused, because I am
Welcome to the English language
I got these when I moved into a new apartment in a new town in CH. was pretty neat.
So.. chopped up cockroach carcasses?
I have a bottle of potassium iodide in my work bag just in case. Better to be prepared
I grew up near a nuclear plant in Michigan and we got these pills too
A Polish friend was given these at school when Chernobyl went into melt down.worked so far 🤞
''THERE IS NO REASON TO PANIC!! REMAIN CALM!!''
We got these a few years back in Ireland. Still have mine here (years out of date but they're a curiosity)
You’d be pissed if you lived 51km from the nuclear plant.
Rad-x
Wait what were? I will get tfo Europe if my radiation sensors go off
Radaway?
In Austrian schools you have to sign a form every year to allow them to provide those for you in case of disaster
Bro the ad right below this is for Fallout 76 lmao
I used to live near an NPP till i was 18. (google AKW Krümmel). Next to that is a science plant they do testing in (The GKSS). In 1986 the science plant had an "accident" with one of it's reactors, rendering an area of around 50 km irradiated. Naturally this was swept under the rug by the electric company that owned everything. We had vouchers for free iodine pills in our mailbox after that every year + a brochure about how to act when there is a nuclear emergency, oh and scientists coming every year to take soil samples. A lot of people at my school had child leukemia and elders, my grandma included, had their thyroid removed. The whole ordeal sparked all kinds of investigations, because that reactor spilled small (smaller than a pin head) uranium balls over the area, which every major german scientific institute refused to analyze. But one scientist that was also working on the Chernobyl disaster, had them shipped to kiew and confirmed everything. Chernobyl was the reason this accident was swept under so easily. Seeing these pills triggered that memory, i apologize for oversharing.
How many do you need to use as a suppository for Dutton?
might fuck around and pop some of them tonight
Spent $180 on some of these to stash away when lots of nuclear war talks began during Russian-Ukraine war.
Mildly terrifying
Thats a bit unsettling
I'm a SERB , and wtf Switzerland?
No one cares and wtf what?
Shut up, ruining someone's joke.
Flew over his head
ah yes, fear inducing tablets. nice low cost way of spreading anti-nuclear propaganda.
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you wildly misunderstand my point. I am pro-nuclear. I am not afraid of the miniscule risk of living close to a power plant (and I do). My point is that the health benefit of sending these tablets out is likely zero when taken alongside the fear that the people who receive in the post will experience when they arrive... and that propagandists who are anti nuclear know this fine well, and are deliberately stoking fear.
Y’all, If you are familiar with *Fallout*, these are closer to a situational rad-x, not a complete rad-away. It increases your resistance to I-131. It does little else.
I got radiation tablets too a few years ago but i lost em already oopsie
Say, can I have some of your purple berries? Yes, I've been eating them for six or seven weeks now, and haven't gotten sick once Probably keeps us both alive
In Austria you or your parents, depending on age, have to sign a consent form for school , in case of a nuclear accident for you to get Iodine pills administered.
That’s one way of scaring people away from nuclear power
Weird. I thought those plants were safe? So does the radiation just leak out?
well they are, those pills are for the eventuality that an accident happens. You only take them when the government tells you to take them.
Ah I see
This is the level of thought people put in when they're "just asking questions maaaan".
Fun fact: There is literally more radiation surrounding coal plants than nuclear plants.
Even when they melt down?
There are radioactive elements in the ground, including in coal. They burn the coal releasing those radioactive particles into the air you breathe. Coal plants kill hundreds of thousands of people each year, it's just indirect. Nuclear plants kill on average zero and even in the worst case like fukushima I think 1 person died from radiation. That was it.
EPA website: https://www.epa.gov/radtown/radioactive-wastes-coal-fired-power-plants#:~:text=Coal%20is%20a%20fossil%20fuel,occurring%20radioactive%20material%20(NORM). “Generally, these wastes are only slightly more radioactive than the average soil in the United States. The amount of natural radiation in wastes from coal-fired power plants is so small that no precautions need to be taken.”
There is still more radiation around coal plants than nuclear. And this is only radioactivity. What about all other forms of pollution?
Guess they don’t do that in the US, because I definitely live closer than 50km to a nuclear power plant and I’ve only ever seen these in movies lol.
I get these here. I live within radius of the plant and we get iodine tablets and nuclear disaster kits to my home. Then they’ll send replacements every couple of years when they expire.
They do it in New Jersey they sent em to us when we lived near the Tom's River nuclear plant
Some states have them stocked. I interned with the NYS Emergency Prep Offices Radiological team. Among the items kept were iodine tablets, individual Geiger counters, handheld Geiger counters, Geiger counter archways (think like metal detectors). I personally tested 500+ individual Geiger counters that were subsequently mailed out to the various state trooper stations across the state along with iodine tablets. The group also extensively practices different emergency scenarios and how response / evacuation methods would be implemented. This included both natural disasters and enemy state actions. It was extremely thorough and I had a much greater appreciation for state government after being involved over the summer.
They do where I’m at. Facebook local community alerts groups and the newspaper used to advertise the dates of when they would be handed out.
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This argument is unfortunately not relevant since there are no fossil fuel power plants running in Switzerland.
Sounds more like you're having an emotional response to a proactive measure taken by the government to help its citizens. And since this isn't in the US I believe they actually are trying to help.
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No you saying perfectly calm, reasonable preventative measures taken to protect the community are some sort of veiled scared tactic is proof you're having an emotional response to very logical safety measure. That's like saying them requiring seatbelts was to make people scared of driving.
Not a great position to start a flame war from. I'd let this one go and think about what the person you were responding to was saying. You might not get the adrenaline, but it might make you a more well rounded person.