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All Belgians To Be Given Iodine Pills In Case Of Nuclear Accident (phys.org)
mdsolar quotes a report from Phys.Org: Belgium is to provide iodine pills to its entire population of around 11 million people to protect against radioactivity in case of a nuclear accident, the health minister was quoted as saying Thursday. The move comes as Belgium faces growing pressure from neighboring Germany to shutter two ageing nuclear power plants near their border due to concerns over their safety. Iodine pills, which help reduce radiation build-up in the human thyroid gland, had previously only been given to people living within 20 kilometres (14 miles) of the Tihange and Doel nuclear plants. Health Minister Maggie De Block was quoted by La Libre Belgique newspaper as telling parliament that the range had now been expanded to 100 kilometers, effectively covering the whole country. The health ministry did not immediately respond to AFP when asked to comment. The head of Belgium's French-speaking Green party, Jean-Marc Nollet, backed the measures but added that "just because everyone will get these pills doesn't mean there is no longer any nuclear risk," La Libre reported. Belgium's creaking nuclear plants have been causing safety concerns for some time after a series of problems ranging from leaks to cracks and an unsolved sabotage incident. Yesterday, a nuclear plant in Germany was reportedly infected with a computer virus.
You can, around 10-20mg/kg is the LD50 in most animals, however these will not be pure iodine pills.
Your take iodine to stop the body taking up radioactive iodine, which gets quite nasty due to its activity and retention.
If your bodies iodine requirements are met already, the radioactive iodine will pass through you with little effect.
For the general population, iodine supplements are highly beneficial, primarily to the brain development and function.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iodine_deficiency
This seems like a low risk, low cost, if somewhat paranoid precaution.
Iodine is not exactly a difficult thing to source in bulk if/when needed, but hey, why not.
actually, the computer is British invention, (http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/content/hist/ ) that due to political lack of foresight we gave to the Americans and then destroyed and hushed it up as secret for 50 years.
The WWW is British too, so the internet as in webpages which most of your countrymen consider the "internet" isn't American either.
Thank you for demonstrating the stereotype of Americans being stupid, you win the internet.
Care to reference any credible source about these deformities? In reality, they are having a hard time finding any adverse health effects to the populations around Chernobyl. I know, you will call that just a conspiracy and that all the deformities are kept secret, only to be revealed by some guy with a website.. right?
You are an idiot. Coal and fossil fuel energy plants kill more people than nuclear plant, including the Chernobyl accident. Nuclear energy is safer than any other form of energy production, including hydro-electricity. A coal energy plant releases in the atmosphere more radioactive material than all the nuclear plants combined.
Achille Talon
Hop!