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Potassium iodide distributors have a friend on Twitter:
A Twitter battle over the size of each "nuclear button" possessed by President Donald Trump and North Korea's Kim Jong-un has spiked sales of a drug that protects against radiation poisoning.
Troy Jones, who runs the website www.nukepills.com, said demand for potassium iodide soared last week, after Trump tweeted that he had a "much bigger & more powerful" button than Kim — a statement that raised new fears about an escalating threat of nuclear war. "On Jan. 2, I basically got in a month's supply of potassium iodide and I sold out in 48 hours," said Jones, 53, who is a top distributor of the drug in the United States. His Mooresville, N.C., firm sells all three types of the product approved by the Food and Drug Administration. No prescription is required.
In that two-day period, Jones said, he shipped about 140,000 doses of potassium iodide, also known as KI, which blocks the thyroid from absorbing radioactive iodine and protects against the risk of cancer. Without the tweet, he typically would have sent out about 8,400 doses to private individuals, he said. Jones also sells to government agencies, hospitals and universities, which aren't included in that count.
Alan Morris, president of the Williamsburg, Va.-based pharmaceutical firm Anbex Inc., which distributes potassium iodide, said he's seen a bump in demand, too. "We are a wonderful barometer of the level of anxiety in the country," said Morris.
Note: A comment on the article claims that Nukepills is massively overcharging for the substance.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 13 2018, @11:49PM
You're delusional if you believe in the narrative that a nuclear terrorist threat would be some DIY garage bomb shit. You can "cobble together" a dirty bomb from medical-use radionucleids or whatever, fuck pay some kids or tweakers to pull apart enough smoke detectors and you're a-go. But a real nuke would more than likely be one of the various warheads that are unaccounted for since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Or now that Pakistan is officially pissed off at the USA, they might be kicking out all the US spies and try to move their stockpile from away from prying eyes, which could open up opportunities for the enterprising nuke thief.
I would not be surprised if some "disgruntled Arab princes" already own a classic Red Star Nuke as a personal deterrent. People with that kind of money are (hopefully) too clever to play this card on the offense though.