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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: 2) by HiThere on Sunday January 14 2018, @06:34PM
I don't think that being in Australia is that much protection, even an exchange between India and Afghanistan (or was it Pakistan? The one controlling the source of the Ganges) is supposed to be sufficient, with bad luck, to cause massive crop failures. (The estimate I read was sort of vague, and was over a decade ago. Perhaps they've cut back their weaponry, or perhaps they won't get involved.) And while Australia exports beef, doesn't it import a lot of grain?
Still, Australia is sparsely populated compared to much of the world, of course it's also rather inhospitable, which is *why* it's sparsely populated. But there are probably lots of people there used to living without the electric grid or imported materials...like petroleum. Even if just the North goes down, that still means total collapses of the global economic system, and no more imports. Also there's a lot more water in the Southern Oceans, so the mean temperature will be slower to change. But you need to expect massive changes in weather patterns. (Australia is know to have cycles where it just basically doesn't rain for years, isn't it? And other periods where the central plain turns into a small inland sea? I believe there are records of both, though I'm vague on the details.)
OTOH, we're already on the way to warming the North Pole sufficiently to totally alter the oceanic current circulation, including South of the equator, since the major current flows around India between the Atlantic and the Pacific, and I've no idea how. So given a bit of time things should get interesting anyway.
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