World's Anti-U.S. Sentiment
Helps Sell Anti-Radiation Pills
BY JUDY FAHYS
THE SALT LAKE
TRIBUNE
Al- Qaida threatens to import more mayhem to
the United States. War looms in Iraq. Utahns, like other
Americans, are shopping for terror remedies even at the height
of the holidays.
And merchants are
addressing the demand with so-called radiation pills and
anthrax immunity boosters that are now in demand at Utah
health food stores.
"People are
afraid," said Pam Watson, co-owner of the Shirlyn stores in
the Salt Lake Valley. "It's sad we live in times when you have
to be afraid of a nuclear bomb at any time because of the
political climate. It's a sad commentary on the times we live
in, unfortunately."
Nonetheless, demand
is strong for products that promise to protect consumers and
their loved ones during a nuclear or terror-related disaster.
This week a Colorado-based supplements
company, Natural Balance, launched an advertising campaign for
its "NoRad" anti-radiation pills in Salt Lake City and Orange
County, Calif. -- a prelude to a national campaign that is
scheduled to begin after the new year. Ads have been aired
coast to coast on the Art Bell radio show for the potassium
iodide pills, which insulate the thyroid from one dangerous
component of nuclear fallout, radioactive iodine.
Company spokesman Scott Smith said
Natural Balance hardly wants "to play the Grinch" by promoting
a product with such grim implications. But Natural Balance
sees potassium iodide as an important product that has not
been widely available outside the military and the government.
"It's
unfortunate that this is something families interested in
preparedness need at this time," said Smith. "That's what
we've done, made it available to people and their families."
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
announced a year ago it would provide two potassium iodide
pills to everyone in 34 states who lives within 10 miles of a
nuclear power plant. The Homeland Security Act enacted last
month expanded the distribution area to 20 miles around the
plants, while the American Thyroid Association wants the pills
made available 200 miles away.
This
week, the U.S. Postal Service said it would purchase 1.6
million potassium iodide pills to help protect its 750,000
workers during a radiological emergency.
Potassium iodide works by stoking the
thyroid with the iodine it naturally requires. Then, rather
than being absorbed by the thyroid and spurring cancer,
radioactive iodine passes from the body.
Currently, there is a heightened
awareness of the danger of fallout. For 30 years, researchers
at the University of Utah have been tracking the link between
atomic-testing fallout and thyroid disease, especially in
downwind areas. The on-going study involves 3,800 people,
including many Utahns who were exposed to radioactive iodine
through milk they drank.
Yet, in Utah,
where there are no nuclear-power plants, people would find few
uses for potassium iodide. They would need it only if exposed
to a nuclear bomb or to an accident at one of the university
research reactors. Since the hazards posed by radioactive
iodine diminishes in eight days, potassium iodide would do
nothing for people worried about spent nuclear-plant fuel,
military bomb-making rubbish and other nuclear waste.
Bill Sinclair, director of the Utah
Division of Radiation Control, also pointed out that people
exposed to nuclear fallout would face many other hazards that
would be indifferent to potassium iodide.
But given the terrorist threat,
consumers have not been deterred. They have bought more than
60,000, 20-tablet boxes since NoRad hit the market in October,
many through 53 Utah health-food stores that carry the
product.
The world's tense political
climate also has been a boon for Orem-based ITS Inc., which
produces a colostrum supplement called Immune Tree that is
touted for its anthrax antibodies. Company founder and
president Anthony Kleinsmith said sales are up 235 percent in
the year since the terrorist attacks in New York and
Washington.
"It's something that --
since 9-11 -- has come home to the U.S., especially with all
the anger in the world against the U.S.," said Kleinsmith.
This heightened sensitivity, he added, has made it worthwhile
to offer the public ways to address the terror risks.
In Logan, Merlin Harker reported
stocking potassium iodide for the first time in two decades
because of requests at his Shangri-la Health Food store.
"There has been quite an interest in it," he said. "It's
something that sells itself. We don't promote it."
But at Wild Oats, a Colorado-based
chain with 99 health-food stores in 23 states and Canada,
neither the anthrax or the anti-radiation pills have passed
company product standards and are not stocked. Not only are
there safety and effectiveness questions that need to be
answered before those products are approved, but Wild Oats has
philosophical concerns about them, said spokeswoman Sonja
Tuitele.
"We would want to make sure we
were not instilling fear in people," she said. "We would
definitely want to weigh whether we were making the wrong
statement to people."
Elise Lazar, a
Salt Lake City anti-nuclear activist, was pleased to hear a
retailer taking that position. She called the marketing of the
anti-radiation tablets "obscene."
"It
shows the worst in people, making money on the back of fear."
fahys@sltrib.com
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