'It's getting like 9/11': Rising fear over radiation threat as panicked Americans buy more gas masks, tablets and even PET SHELTERS

By Mark Duell
Updated: 18:51 EDT, 17 March 2011

• High demand for gas masks and pet shelters at RDD USA Military Surplus 'getting towards sales levels of 9/11'
• U.S. Surgeon General warns Americans to 'be prepared' for harmful radiation from Japan to hit West Coast
  
• Nukepills.com sells 250,000 potassium iodide pills while Anbex gets three orders a MINUTE instead of per week
• Packs of 14 pills that usually cost $9.99 changing hands on Amazon.com and eBay for $250 to $400
• Geigercounters.com begs people not to place any more orders after it sells out of radiation detection gadgets
• Some worried people stocking up on seaweed, red wine, vodka, bread and chilli peppers as preventative measures
• Surge in purchases of gas masks and emergency survival kits including food, water and space blankets reported
  

Panic-buying of radiation protection increased today in the wake of the United Nations' forecast that a nuclear plume from Japan's crisis-hit reactor could drift across the Pacific to the U.S. by Friday.

Worried Americans are trying to protect themselves against the nuclear fallout after U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin warned them to 'be prepared' for harmful radiation from Japan's stricken Fukushima plant that could blow to the West Coast - although President Obama has called for calm.

One military supplies firm said it is even selling pet shelters with gas filters and the thousands of masks sold were reminiscent of the panic after 9/11.

'High demand': RDD USA Military Surplus said sales of gas masks and filtered pet shelters are in the thousands and 'getting towards the levels of 9/11'

Mr Obama said he does not expect any harmful levels of radiation to reach the U.S and Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano confirmed today that no harmful levels of radiation have reached America.

Environmental Protection Agency monitors are not picking up any harmful levels of radiation on the RadNet monitors across the U.S. and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said it does not expect to see radiation at harmful levels reaching the U.S. from damaged Japanese nuclear power plants.

But a spokesman for RDD USA Military Surplus, one of the main distributors of gas masks in the U.S., said the last time he remembered such demand for the masks was after September 11 2001 when citizens were worried about further terrorist attacks.

'There is high demand and we're working around the clock shipping masks over the U.S. and abroad,' he told MailOnline. 'We're talking about thousands of per cent more than average and I can't compare it to any recent time other than 9/11. It's getting towards the sales levels of 9/11.'

The company, whose stocks are now getting low, said it is also selling a large number of protective shelters with filters for small pets, measuring 2ft by 2ft 6in. These use the same mechanism as a gas mask but dogs or cats can be placed inside.

Stocks of tablets that aim to stop radiation poisoning the thyroid gland are running low and customers missing out are said to be ‘crying’ or ‘terrified’.

Empty: This store in Los Angeles was out of potassium iodide following a run on the supplement at grocery stores and pharmacies

Panic: U.S. Surgeon General, Regina Benjamin, left, said it was right to be prepared for harmful radiation that could blow across to the West Coast following explosions at the Fukushima plant in Japan as worried Americans panic-bought potassium iodide tablets to protect themselves against any nuclear fallout 

Anbex president Alan Morris said the firm was getting three orders per minute for the $10 iOSAT packages - compared to the normal rate of as low as three per week. ‘Those who don't get it are crying,’ he told the Wall Street Journal. ‘They're terrified.’

Fleming Pharmaceuticals, which makes liquid potassium iodide, say they are getting dozens of calls and emails every hour for their 45ml $13.25 ThyroShield bottles. ‘It actually has been insanity here,’ co-owner Deborah Fleming Wurdack said. The company expects to sell out this week.

Merz Apothecary in Chicago, Illinois, sold its initial supply of potassium iodide on Saturday and a later shipment had almost sold out on Wednesday.

'We have sold at least 400 bottles both in-store and online, in large and small quantities, and we could have sold another 400 to 500 if there had been enough inventory,' co-owner Michael Winter said.

He told the Chicago Sun-Times it is 'impossible' to reorder because manufacturers are running out of supplies. A General Nutrition Centers spokesman said some customers who cannot find the drugs are turning to a multi-vitamin containing 150 micrograms per caplet of the potassium iodide supplement.

Pennsylvania health officials have reported a surge in the number of inquiries about potassium iodide pills up to 85 calls on Monday and Tuesday.

France has sent anti-radiation tablets to its overseas territories in the Pacific Ocean of New Caledonia, Wallis and Futuna and French Polynesia as a preventive measure, reported Radio Australia News.

Travellers landing at Chicago's O'Hare airport and Dallas Fort-Worth airport were claimed to have tested positive for minute amounts of radiation, but this was later denied by airport authorities, as Americans were evacuated from Japan over fears it is facing disaster.

Monitoring: A RadNet radiation monitor is seen on the roof of the Bay Area Air Quality District offices in San Francisco, California. Additional radiation detectors are being deployed in areas on the West Coast

Van Nuys Army & Navy Surplus store in California is shifting a large amount of Israeli civilian gas masks, which sell for about $40, as well as emergency survival equipment such as complete meals, drinking water and space blankets.

'We've sold more gas masks the past two days than in the past year and we keep getting numerous calls from other folks asking for these masks,' store owner Paul Kershaw told Shermon Oaks Patch. 

'In buying them I'm sure they'll feel more safe and secure in case something unusual would happen like nuclear fallout - highly unlikely but possible.'

Another supplier, Armygasmasks.com, said this is an 'extremely busy time' for them.

More radiation monitors are being deployed on the U.S. West Coast and its Pacific territories as officials battle to calm public concern over exposure to the nuclear fallout.

California already has 12 monitoring stations scattered throughout the state that test the air for radiation levels and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency also has 40 'deployable' monitors for emergencies.

Drug supplier Nukepills.com sold 250,000 potassium iodide pills and 3,000 liquid doses to pharmacies, labs, companies and hospitals last weekend, president Troy Jones told Fox News.

Most orders came from California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska and Hawaii. It has back-ordered more than a million tablets and donated 50,000 to Japan.

Pills were also changing hands for staggering amounts online. Five sellers on Amazon.com were offering 14 iOSAT potassium iodide tablets - that usually cost $9.99 - for between $250 and $459. Another was selling 900 pills for $7,800. On eBay packs of 14 pills were selling for between $250 to $300 .

Incredible scene: A ship is seen perched on top of a house in the tsunami devastated remains of Otsuchi, Iwate prefecture

One U.S. website was also begging customers not to order any more Geiger counters - devices that measure levels of radiation - after demand completely outstripped supply for the pocket models, following the warnings.

Geigercounters.com posted on its site: 'Due to the disaster in Japan, orders for Geiger counters have out-stripped supply. At this point there are simply not enough detectors available to meet the overwhelming demand.'

An update later read: 'The backlog is just too great - don't place any more orders for Geiger counters unless it is the Detector or Prospector models.'

A spokesman for the site said they had sold hundreds of the devices, which cost anything from $250 to more than $1,000, since last week's earthquake.

Scientists have warned of a 'worst-case scenario' in which material blasted into the atmosphere after a Fukushima plant ‘meltdown’ could be blown towards the U.S.

Radioactive iodine can come out of a nuclear reactor in an accident, but other experts say there is a low chance of Japan's radiation reaching the U.S. at dangerous levels.

Memories of the Chernobyl disaster in Russia are still strong, where pharmacies in Vladivostok, just west of Japan, have run out of potassium iodide. Other products being purchased around the world for radiation protection included seaweed, red wine, vodka, iodine-rich bread and chilli peppers.

Shoppers in China were buying huge quantities of salt in the mistaken belief that it contains enough iodine to block radiation. Health officials said an adult would need to swallow 3kg (7lbs) of salt in one sitting to prevent radiation poisoning.

California and Washington states have been reassuring residents their monitoring has not detected any harmful radiation levels - and health officials do not expect to.

‘Japan has an evacuation area of about 12 miles from the nuclear plants. Washington state is 5,000 to 6,000 miles away from Japan,’ a state health spokesman said.

Memories: A fireman goes through a photo album found in the ruins of the devastated town of Otsuchi, left, while survivors make their way home through the same town

California has been advising residents not to buy the drug, as it could cause side effects in those allergic to shellfish or suffering from thyroid problems.

Kelly Huston of the California Emergency Management Agency said state officials and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission are telling people not to buy the pills.

Potassium iodide, which stops the body from taking in radioactive iodine from a nuclear emergency, can be purchased without a prescription. The salt fills up the thyroid gland and stops it collecting radioactive material - reducing the risk of cancer and other health problems.

But Professor Kathryn Higley, director of the Oregon State University (OSU) nuclear engineering department, said the U.S. West Coast residents should not be worried.

‘We’re going to be lucky if we can even measure any of this,’ she told the Register-Guard. ‘Right now, the expectation is it’s going to be a locally contained event.’

OSU radiation expert Steven Reese added: ‘I would caution anybody against taking potassium iodide in an effort to protect themselves against radioactive iodine.

‘A certain fraction of the population will have an anaphylactic reaction to it - they’ll be allergic to it. And the consequences of that can be severe.'