Oregonians and other westcoast residents, even Midwesterners are in near panic to buy iodide pills, Geiger counters and emergency kits. However, they soon find there's little to buy and are logging into Amazon to stock up, and finding many selections there are either out of stock or backordered.
Alaska and the West Coast are closest to the site of the earthquake, but even people from Midwest states are preparing for winds to carry radiation from Japan.
Potassium iodide tablets protect the thyroid gland from radioactive material by overloading it with nonradioactive iodine.
Health experts say taking the tablets was not a good idea, that Potassium contained in the pills can lead to heart problems and giving an adult a dose of potassium iodide to an infant would be toxic.
Physics professor Ken Barish at the University of California, Riverside says it's unlikely that the West Coast would be harmed by radioactivity drifting from Japan.
In Redding, Calif., Whitney's Vitamin and Herb Shop is stocking up on potassium iodide tablets after the store said it was overwhelmed with calls this weekend from people seeking the anti-radiation medicine.
Scientists Say Minimal Risk to U.S. of Radiation from Japan but Jorgensen says Californians have no reason to panic.
"In my opinion, the risk to California is so small, it's remote."
Radiation is all around us and it's perfectly normal and safe. Bananas are radioactive. So are microwave ovens, cell phones and X-rays, even people. Every year, just walking around on the planet, each of us is exposed to about 3.5 millisieverts (mSv) of radiation. That is the equivalent of approximately 94 chest X-rays.
In order to get radiation sickness you need to be exposed to 1,000 mSv at once. For most people radiation would be fatal at about 5,000 mSv.
To put this in perspective, the radiation levels at the nuclear plant in Japan are about 400 mSv. That means you would have to sit there for two and a half hours to get sick.
Even in the worst-case scenario, if there is a full meltdown doctors said the radiation levels would be so low by the time they reached America they couldn't hurt anyone. Which is why, despite the scary pictures coming out of Japan, experts are telling ABC News that there is no need to panic and no need to run out for Geiger counters or potassium iodide pills.
Troy Jones who runs nukepills.com in North Carolina says he is receiving two dozen orders of potassium iodide pills on his website every five minutes.
"I’m now getting one every 30 seconds," said Jones. He says he’s sold more than 50,000 doses of pills and liquid in the last week, after the nuclear fallout from Japan’s devastating earthquake and tsunami.
America demand for potassium iodide has swamped the stocks of all three manufacturers or suppliers approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration for use in the U.S.
“We’ve shipped more private orders in the last three days than we have in the last three years,” said Mark Quick, the vice president of corporate development for Recipharm.
Alan Morris, president of Anbex Inc., which manufactures the IOSET pills, said he hoped to produce and ship about 4.5 million tablets in the next few weeks, but admitted that the Japan disaster caught his company a bit off guard.
"The world seems to be utterly terrified of what's going on in Japan," Morris said. "This is the first time in 30 years that we've been out of stock."
It’s the private individual who buys about a quarter million tablets a month. Most clients come from New York, Los Angeles — and Utah, Jones said. And while stockpiling antidotes for a nuclear emergency could seem extreme, Jones said the customers aren’t all the tin-foil hat set.
“I have some nuts, people who swear up and down that the world is going to end May 21,” he said. “Most of them are normal, every-day, see-them-at-the-grocery store people.”
Typical buyers are prudent people who simply like to plan ahead, he said.
Deborah Fleming Wurdack, co-owner of Fleming & Co. Pharmaceuticals, which makes the ThyroShield Solution, agrees.
“Even if the risk is low, why would I not be prepared?” said Wurdack. “I’m one that protects myself and my family, and apparently a lot of people agree with me.”
Potassium iodide actually protects only against one aspect of nuclear radiation, exposure to radioactive iodine 131. It does not protect generally against other forms of radiation exposure, according to the FDA.
“Anyone outside of Japan right now, it would certainly not seem necessary,” said Richard Morin, a professor of Radiologic Physics at the Mayo Clinic and chairman of the American College of Radiology’s Safety Committee.
“There is no need to do it,” added Scott Burnell, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission who notes that the U.S. has never had an emergency that required use or distribution of potassium iodide.
Even Troy Jones believes there will be little actual need for his product:
“I personally do not think anyone on the West Coast is in harm’s way from nuclear radiation from Japan,” he said.
