As Japan races to avoid a nuclear disaster, some Americans and companies in the United States are scrambling to obtain potassium iodide, a drug that can protect people from radiation-induced thyroid cancer.
?We?ve sold more in the past three days than we have in the past three years,? said Jim Small, president of the American arm of Recipharm, a Swedish company that is a major supplier of potassium iodide. While some orders are going to individuals, others are going to companies that want to provide the products to their employees in Japan, the manufacturers said. Small said Recipharm was trying to borrow tablets from governments of countries far from Japan to send there. Alan Morris, president of Anbex, another supplier, said his company was looking to donate two million expired but still effective tablets to Japan.
Japan has distributed iodine tablets to evacuation centres near the nuclear plants that are leaking radiation.