To wonder why no iodine was given after Chernobyl blew up!

[Abbazed]

That really to wonder why no iodine was given to people after Chernobyl? Cost? To avoid fear? Lack of knowledge of the benefits?

Where? It wasn't needed outside the main area, and of course in the main area there was a lack of response, by which time it was too late as iodine needs to be taken very early.

Soviets claimed for days after the incident in Chernobyl that nothing had happened. I was given iodine but can’t remember how long after the explosion.

Which people? I remember people hoarding iodine tablets but then again I was in East Europe.

I wondered if it had a time requirement

Those closest in Pripyat.

Frenchboule...where were you in 86? I remember seeing films on itv

I think it has to be done quickly.

I’ve spent the last 20 years insisting to doctors that I have never been to Russia because the kind of thyroid cancer I had is apparently strongly linked to Chernobyl.

Ooh, I need to ask my mum if she was given anything at the time (Eastern Europe) as I know she said that she was affected- extreme exhaustion for both her and my dad and even their dog!

purpleartichoke Are you in the uk? I was reading a few weeks ago, in the guardian possibly, about nuclear hotspots in the uk as a result of rainfall here in the days/weeks after Chernobyl. I think they were mainly in Cumbria.

It needs to be given within about 8 hours; otherwise little point.

I'm in Cumbria. A map exists showing the worst places affected

8 hours? I can’t imagine anyone getting the tablets within 8 hours, unless they were very close to the pharmacy or hospital with supplies.

I didn't know about iodine. Does it mop up radioactive particle thingies then?

It helps block the thyroid from absorbing radiation

Hospital 128 was close by

In 2002 I think it was here in Ireland the government sent out Iodine tablets to every house in the country in case Sellafield was attacked, 14 million tablets, I remember it being a big thing at the time

They did give iodine, but it was too late.

It was Ireland. I remember them coming in the post.

Woah I didn't know about that

My dad worked in a nuclear power plant and told me how it can’t happen in the uk due to the different safety measures in place here. It was quite interesting as they had built part of it upside down from how the uk does.

strange that residents in Scotland have never been given iodine despite having Hunterston on the Ayrshire coast and Trident the nuclear submarine at Faslane.

Didn't they find that some/a lot of the Cumbrian radiation hot spots weren't just Chernobyl, but related to the Windscale fire and other 'mishaps' that our government played down?

OP,I’m from Poland

America offered the tablets but they we’re declined, by the time the tablets arrived and were delivered to people it would have been too late.
There was also the conspiracy that the government set the whole thing up to happen to see what would happen to people and the environment. I don’t believe it personally but just another point of view.

Iodide tablets flood your thyroid with iodine so that it doesn’t absorb radioactive iodide 129.

It needs to be given before the event. Some countries do issue it to the public. You can buy it on Amazon, that’s where I got our stockpile.

Friend in Belarus was given liquid iodine. Apparently everyone in certain areas was.