iodine

i'm off to Japan in a few days. after much thinking and wondering and talking to people who knew about radiation (well, more than me anyway), i decided to go after all. but then, i was still a tad worried about it, especially the ingesting possibly radioactive food part. air radiation is currently minimum and apparently, of no consequence compared to eating something radioactive - that apparently tends to stay in your body. so i went in search for some iodine.

in Switzerland, the chemist wouldn't give me any. first because they didn't actually have any in stock and second because they said they wouldn't deliver it unless the government issued a warning. then i went to the doctor's. i hadn't been in years and tried a new one (i needed to change anyway, the old one kept giving me antibiotics no matter what was wrong with me). he said it was unnecessary and i should just avoid eating fruit and vegetables. great. the next day, the news broke that cows had 'mistakenly' been given radioactive fodder, had been slaughtered and dispatched across the country. oh, and the fodder in question was rice-stem hay. so, no fruit, no vegetables, no meat, no rice. just great. as a last resort, i went to the local chemist and explained the situation. i'm not sure whether or not she was allowed to give me the iodine, but she was clearly sympathetic to my plight and gave it to me anyway. yes!

i know this is just a very small protection, as it will only prevent radioactive iodine from staying in my body, not the other stuff, but it's still better than nothing.