The Fukushima-Daiichi plant damaged in yesterday's devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan has been
rocked by an explosion and dangerous radiation is leaking from the plant. Late-breaking reports suggest hundreds have already been sickened by radiation exposure in the area near the plant. A fallout map shows the radiation could reach Alaska's Aleutian Islands within three days and the country's west coast over the next 6 to 10 days as the jet stream carries radiation clouds. People living in the affected areas might be well advised to take
potassium iodide pills to help protect them from thyroid cancer. The pills have to be taken at least 6 to 12 hours prior to exposure in order to be effective. I suspect the U.S. government won't bother warning Americans living on the west coast of this danger. Poland, unlike other states in the former Soviet Union, immediately dispensed potassium iodide to its population after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986 and avoided the sharp increase in reported cases of thyroid cancer experienced in neighboring Soviet states.
