Potassium iodide protects the thyroid after radiation exposure.
The Medicine Shoppe in Beavercreek has received requests this week for potassium iodide from both doctors and customers because of the store’s proximity to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, according to pharmacist Ryan Beauchamp. “With the military installation here we have a lot of families that travel over to Japan.”
Beauchamp said the pharmacy has ordered potassium iodide powder to make capsules if needed.
The Vitamin Shoppe in Miami Twp. sold out of over-the-counter potassium iodide on Monday and has since received dozens of calls about the supplement, said Ryan Fleming, the store’s manager.
“We are sold out of the product chain-wide,” said Susan McLaughlin, Vitamin Shoppe spokeswoman.
Bill Blatchford, pharmacist at Clark’s Pharmacy Kettering-Oakwood, said he has tried to discourage customers from taking potassium iodide, which costs as little as $5 for a 14-pill pack, as a preventative measure. “It is in short supply now and I see many websites trying to take advantage of the situation to make money,” Blatchford said.
Preparedness.com suggests storing one 14-pill pack per person in the home.
The Clark’s Pharmacy in Tipp City dispenses potassium iodide on a regular basis to customers with thyroid conditions, said pharmacist Robyn Crow. The store had a higher than usual number of requests this week, including one caller Wednesday who wanted to know if they should pack some for a trip to Hawaii, Crow said.
“If they wanted to purchase some and take it with them they could certainly do that, but I said I wouldn’t advise them to take any (internally) until we heard that they should be doing that,” Crow said.
The thyroid gland, located in the neck, picks up iodine and turns it into necessary thyroid hormone.
Potassium iodide fills up the thyroid’s iodine receptors “so the radioactive iodine has nowhere to bind and can’t be concentrated in the gland, and just passes harmlessly out of the body,” Solomon said. It will block 90 percent of radioactive iodine, but only if taken immediately before or after exposure. “Even if there were to be a meltdown, the amount of radioactive iodine that will come from Japan to Ohio is so small that there would be no value at all in taking this.”
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