How Iodine Pills Can—and Can’t—Help Against Radiation

As unease about Russia’s nuclear saber-rattling grows, along with concerns about the safety of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, officials in Kyiv are distributing iodine pills to help protect residents against potential radiation exposure. In neighboring Poland, the government is also making free iodine tablets available. Likewise, in Finland, pharmacies are running out of the pills after the country’s health ministry advised households to buy them in case of an emergency.

Such measures are precautionary, but they can also put people on edge. Google searches for “potassium iodide”—a naturally occurring type of iodine that can counteract some effects of radiation—spiked at the end of February shortly after the Russian invasion

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