Potassium Iodide Tabs

HSpencer · Post by **HSpencer** » Fri Mar 18, 2011 1:57 am

Should have bought your Potassium Iodide tabs last week. The price has gone from $37.50 a packet to $298.95 a packet in one fell swoop. (Swell Foop?)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/ ... dition=all
Good thing we really may not even need them. Let the gubbermint pick up the tab and pass them out for free. At least Frontline Mobility offers to ship theirs free.

floridamike · Post by **floridamike** » Fri Mar 18, 2011 2:46 am

I hope you are joking. I'm fairly new here and sometimes can't quite figure out if people are being really dry in their sense of humor, or if they are just plain nuts. My sense is this forum attracts a little of both.
I think the likelihood of radiation spreading from Japan to the SE US is not among the top 10,000 things that reasonable people should be worried about. But the fact that the US stock of potassium iodide has been bought up in less than a week probably indicates that there are a lot of folks who agree with you. Too bad, that medicine could have been shipped to Japan where it might actually be needed.

Surio · Post by **Surio** » Fri Mar 18, 2011 3:01 am

Hi Mike from Florida,

Welcome to the forums. As Jacob has magnanimously pointed out several times, the comments in his blog are where the "real action" is

. The average readership here is very smart, very well-read (arcane, esoteric, mainstream, everything) very opinionated...etc and as you rightly sussed out, possess a highly dry/snarky sense of humour to boot.
P.S: HSpencer is de facto leader for sniffing up topics that generate maximum 'clamour', and I daresay, he's already drawn first blood!

HSpencer · Post by **HSpencer** » Fri Mar 18, 2011 3:12 am

Naw Mike,
The gist of the post is "price gouging". I am in no way advocating that radiation is going to kill half the US population!
A friend phoned me up (people do still call me now and then) and asked if I had picked up on the price gouging going on with PI.

Being the forum's "Investigating Reporter" (and a few other titles as well), I ran over to Amazon to check it out.

Just a FYI thingy.
Edit: I rechecked the link just now and someone has added another supplier to the tune of more high prices.
@Surio

Where have I seen the term "snarky" before? Ummmm ok, yeah.

floridamike · Post by **floridamike** » Fri Mar 18, 2011 3:16 am

I get it, but I did hear today that it was pretty much sold out throughout the US, so apparently there are a lot of people who have this on their "things to worry about list". I'm guessing a fair number of them are 50 pounds overweight, smoke, drive without seatbelts.......

George the original one · Fri Mar 18, 2011 3:33 am

<redefining snark>

Americans will price-gouge with equal opportunity. If Japanese residents want to pay those prices, then Americans will sell it to them.
***
On the more serious side, I'm old enough to remember the above-ground nuclear tests that China performed and how we were warned away from drinking milk & making sure fruits were well-washed for a week after the dust clouds reached the west coast. I also know how chemically dirty the air can be on the pacific coast if the winds are "just wrong" since we're upwind of many dirty coal-fired plants in China (dirty compared to the US coal-fired plants). Thus, however unlikely, it's not hard to posit that an extremely large steam explosion could loft cesium 137 high enough to be of concern.

JasonR · Post by **JasonR** » Fri Mar 18, 2011 3:55 am

HSpencer · Post by **HSpencer** » Fri Mar 18, 2011 3:57 am

Reference my OP link:
Homeland Safety is still holding at $37.50 (a/o 2200 hours)
Who wants to bet that's a sure fire cancel or backorder if you place an order?
Bet the other two would ship in a New York minute.

HSpencer · Post by **HSpencer** » Sat Mar 19, 2011 2:33 am

Ebay
http://cgi.ebay.com/IOSAT-Potassium-Iod ... 336611099b

dragoncar · Post by **dragoncar** » Sun Mar 20, 2011 11:42 am

I've got some in my emergency kit. Should I sell high?

Surio · Post by **Surio** » Sun Mar 20, 2011 11:56 am

You are being true to Original George's "snark" redefinition

.
P.S: Is your moniker based on the Russian car?

EMJ · Post by **EMJ** » Sun Mar 20, 2011 4:41 pm

Some facts:
As before, there is little if any risk of significant landfall of radioactive materials on the West Coast due to the mixing, settling, decay, and rainout of radioactive materials...even if the trajectories were straight into us.

http://cliffmass.blogspot.com/
XKCD's radiation dose chart

http://www.boingboing.net/2011/03/19/gr ... howin.html

HSpencer · Post by **HSpencer** » Mon Mar 21, 2011 12:30 am

Just tracking prices. Reminds me of the $8.00 per gallon gasoline the afternoon of 9/11.

ademac · Post by **ademac** » Tue Mar 22, 2011 6:26 am

Forget the overpriced tabs, just swap you sea salt for iodized salt.
simple and effective thryroid blocker.
But as JasonR said "Plus the tablets only protect your thyroid. Unless you've mastered the delicate art of only developing cancer in your thyroid then you won't need these pills."

CestLaVie · Post by **CestLaVie** » Tue Mar 22, 2011 4:30 pm

I was only 1,000 miles downwind from Chernobyl when it blew up in 1986. Twenty five years later, I'm still kicking and I don't glow in the dark. People need to get a grip.

mikeBOS · Post by **mikeBOS** » Tue Mar 22, 2011 4:39 pm

On the other hand, this seems like a unique investment opportunity. What else could we stock up on and then wait for mass-hysteria to set in and sell it all off at hyper-inflated prices?
Or how about putting a "potassium iodide" label on a pack of tic-tacs and selling that for a few hundred bucks? Probably be just as useful, if not more.

JohnnyH · Post by **JohnnyH** » Tue Mar 22, 2011 4:50 pm

@EMJ: thank you for the excellent chart!... Most shocking is the mammogram and CT scans. The practice of yearly mammograms is some seriously worrisome conventional wisdom.
I would say the Nikkei is prime for a short now that the bounce might be topping... Naked short is too much risk for me, but I will be selling a bear call spread near the pre-quake levels.

methix · Post by **methix** » Tue Mar 22, 2011 8:12 pm

Will pass on the pills but I bought a small stake in CCJ last week. Economically Japan has to many issues for my taste but media hysteria aside, I think nuclear isn't going anywhere.

Marius · Post by **Marius** » Wed Mar 23, 2011 10:19 pm

@dragoncar

What's in my emergency kit is there for a reason and stays there.
I think you guys are pretty optimistic.