Fear Claims A Victim

Caption: Customers in China rush to buy salt at a supermarket in Lanzhou, Gansu province. The demand for salt has been spurred by rumors of a radioactive cloud from Japan drifting toward China and a false impression that consuming enough iodized salt would protect against radiation. (Reuters / March 17, 2011)







Panic buying of salt in China:

China tried to quell panic buying of iodized salt Thursday after grocery stores across the country were emptied of the seasoning by hordes of people hoping to ward off radiation poisoning from Japan.

The clamor for salt reportedly started after rumors spread, possibly by cellphone text-messaging, that China would be hit by a radioactive cloud from Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, which had been badly damaged during last week's earthquake and tsunami.

...In a scene repeated across the country, online video from the eastern Chinese city of Wenzhou showed panicked shoppers filling their baskets with tubs of salt and street vendors complaining about being cleaned out of the seasoning. "I hear there was also a huge earthquake in Taiwan and it will hurt salt supply," a woman is heard saying. There was no earthquake in Taiwan.

Chinese authorities have tried to quash the rumors, explaining that the country has massive reserves and that 80% of its salt sources were on land.

...The Chinese National Marine Environmental Forecasting Center also tried to allay fears that radioactive particles were heading for China, explaining that currents in the Pacific Ocean next to Fukushima were flowing east.

...In another sign panic over Japan's nuclear crisis is spreading across borders, authorities in the Philippines had to hold a news conference Thursday to silence rumors spread on mobile phones that the country would be hit by radioactive fallout.

Meanwhile, panic of a sort has struck the United States too. Unlike the Chinese, and despite the distance, we are downwind of all this chaos. Sales of potassium iodide pills have zoomed.

Co-worker Wei bought some potassium iodide pills on the Internet, but he advises me to buy now, because the price is leaping and supplies are running out. Wei also sends me this link from the Chinese press (as translated by Google Language Tools into English):

Japan nuclear leak caused by fear of radiation damage, Cixi, Zhejiang Province yesterday, a male excessive consumption of salt people "anti-radiation", was taken to hospital after family members found, He died died. This is the alleged earthquake in Japan, the first outside their victims.

Who will the first American salt victim be?