Radiation Risks and Potassium Iodide

This article talks about the radioactive substances in the air from the earthquake in Japan and whether or not people should consider taking potassium iodide supplements. The iodide prevents radioactive iodine from coming into your body and attacking your thyroid glands. This person does not think Californians should take the iodide supplements because Japan is too far away and is very unlikely to get any radiation at all.

I am with this person because there is just no way radiation even from a big nuclear power plant could ever reach us here in the United States. I'm not exactly sure how many miles there are between us and Japan; but if you look on a map, Japan is pretty far away from us. I mean sure you can get the pills and have them on hand if the radiation does manage to reach us; but if it was me, I would probably just move inland a couple of miles and stay with relatives or rent a hotel room until the radiation is gone. I just can't believe that people would actually think that radiation would reach us all the way out here and practically run over each other to get these supplements. So what I'm trying to say is... Don't get them!