If deadly fallout radiation only lasts a few days, why have potassium iodate pills for 100 days? Do the pills and the 3 feet of dirt protect against 2 different radiation exposures? Help

-- James (b@b.com), June 09, 1999

Answers

James, Asking myself the same. Just got my copy of Nuclear War Survival Skills by Cresson Kerney,its also available on line. Don't have address right at the moment. Anyway, I guess due to the possibility of more than one blast. There's a page in the hard copy text that I was reading today,p.113,Chapter 13, "The most dangerous type of radioactive iodine decays rapidly. At the end of each 8 day period it gives off only half as much radiation as at the start of that period. So at the end of 80 days it emits only about 1/1000 as much radiation per hour as at the beginning of these 80 days. Because of this rapid decay, a 100-day supply of potassium iodide should be sufficient if a nuclear war, either overseas or within the United States, were to last more than a week or two." Talking about families in the paragraph above so guess he means more than one individual and I am also assuming with smaller nuclear weapons and better delivery these days, more likely more than one attack rather than one GIANT blast. Good info in that book.

-- Barb (awaltrip@telepath.com), June 09, 1999.

Okay, read the following threads http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=000vZG http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=000vKF and http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=000vD4 and http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=000v59 and http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=000puv and of course http://home.earthlink.net/~kenseger/surv/IODINE.TXT and the source http://www.advance-scientific.com item # POT590 125g for $53.oo and 500g for $108.oo + shipping reagent grade purity 99.0%.

That should cover just about all the questions you have or will have about radioactivity and you can always follow that up with http://home.earthlink.net/~kenseger/surv to tie up any loose ends.

If you read all of that (+ references to other threads in those threads) I'll be more than happy to answer any other questions on the subject.

-- Ken Seger (kenseger@earthlink.net), June 09, 1999.

Just where can you buy these potassium iodine pills?

-- J. Lynn (puputedu@bigfoot.com), June 09, 1999.

Now I have been reading up on this also, and a friend told me NO NO NO on the pot. iodide, but said that potassium *iodate* is the thing to get, also from an organic source if possible.

Maybe Dr. Schenker will let us know what is right...?

-- (nobody@nowhere.com), June 10, 1999.

Must be what happens when three posts go up at the same time?

-- Debbie (dbspence@usa.net), June 10, 1999.

Radiation from fission products (nuclear fallout) does not last "only a few days."

Supplemental reading:

The Development of Radiation Exposure Standards

How Nuclear Radiation Works

The Fission-Product Equivalence between Nuclear Reactors and Nuclear Weapons

The calculations here show that:

Therefore, a reactor at 3000 Megawatts (thermal) for one year is equivalent to (2.26 x 10^16 gram-calories) divided by (1 x 10^12 gram-calories per Kiloton TNT), or 2.26 x 10^4 Kilotons. Now, taking 1 Hiroshima bomb as 20 Kilotons (KT), we can say 3000 Megawatts (thermal) for 1 year represents 2.26 x 10^4 KT (22,600 Kilotons), divided by 20 Kilotons per bomb, or 1130 Hiroshima bombs equivalent.

(Emphasis mine)

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), June 10, 1999.

In reverse order. Tom - Your post here and at http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=000vds is such a font of misinformation, I'm not sure where to start. Anybody that describes Chernobyl as a nuclear power plant needs to do a lot of studying, this time from reliable sources. P.S. the experiment was stupid, it was however authorized, the experiment did NOT cause the steam explosion directly, the wildly improper manner in which they restarted the reactor was the problem, read Bruce Silbey's magazine for a very detailed description of the accident at the Chernobyl weapons plant. Also, your links, the radon info is all wrong and was totally disproven years ago, ditto the no safe threshold garbage, that was soundly disproven decades ago. Suggest you read science oriented rather than politically oriented material to get up to date on this. Never heard of that equivalance method, I would think an easier method would be just to measure the actual by products rather than make assumptions.

Nobody - The iodate has a more palatable taste than the iodide. Organic source?!? That's a new one on me.

J. Lynn - Those threads have several sources.

-- Ken Seger (kenseger@earthlink.net), June 10, 1999.

James - Tom is technically correct when he says that fallout's radioactivity lasts more than a few days. What is of concern is the period in which the fallout radiation is at a hazardous level. I don't have the address for the threads on this forum where this has been discussed but you can find a short article at http://home.earthlink.net/~kenseger and yes, you are correct the KI is for one type of radiation hazard, the fallout shelter is for a different type of radiation hazard.

-- Ken Seger (kenseger@earthlink.net), June 10, 1999.

Ken Seger,

I believe that I have read all of the sources you have referred to. BTW I really like the stuff available from your web page. I still have two questions:

(1) Lab-grade KI; this is available at low prices. Is it okay to ingest lab-grade KI?

(2) In your iodine text you discuss the use of iodine to clean water. Can this be done with KI? Is this done with the iodine product sold in the drug store? Or is there another source for this iodine?

Thanks

-- Rick (rick7@postmark.net), June 10, 1999.

Rick - 1. I thought this was covered on one of the above mentioned threads, apparently I'm missing one or more in that list. A. Kearney recommends reagent grade B. I would want to know VERY specifically what the other ?% is that is not KI, I value my life C. (the biggie) reagent grade is less than $0.04 per dose

2. *sigh* there is a large article in the latest Nutrition and Healing newsletter by Dr. Jonathan Wright on this precise KI topic. Yes this is THE Dr. Wright that's gone toe to toe with the FDA. For several weeks I've been meaning to pipe over that info on to my website, but I've just been awfully busy. He has all the facts and figures so yes KI can be dual use in your preps. However, if I run out of bleach I have other means, if I run out of KI......... Most authorities avoid recomending using tinture of iodine for water purification due to the fact that is is in an alcohol base and is subject to evaporation and hence concentration to an unknown degree. Advanced only sells 500g of iodine crystals for $150.oo and that's enough for I don't know how many millions and millions of gallons! On a more resaonable scale Polar Pure is a reasonable amount at a reasonable price, don't know if they are still in business. The lab I used to get my small amount of I from went broke.

-- Ken Seger (kenseger@earthlink.net), June 10, 1999.

Ken

There is also a large article in the Jan. 98 issue of Dr. Wright's Nutrition and Healing, on multiple uses for KI. I have been meaning to dig it out of storage (much stuff packed away to make room for food storage :)) - by Dr. Richard Kunin. But perhaps you have it.

-- Debbie (dbspence@usa.net), June 10, 1999.

Yes, I would really like to see those Healing and nutrition newsletters.

-- Rick (rick7@postmark.net), June 11, 1999.

Ken, unless I'm greatly mistaken KI is useless for water purification. Elemental iodine is necessary for this. Chlorine kills bugs - chloride (as in table salt) doesn't. Same difference.

-- Ned (entaylor@cloudnet.com), June 11, 1999.