Panic buyers seek out salt, seaweed

Japan nuclear plant: Panic buyers seek out salt, seaweed and red wine as rumour fuels fallout fears

As nuclear panic began to spread around the world, pharmacies and supermarkets thousands of miles from Japan began to run out of anything and everything that was even rumoured to prevent radiation poisoning.

Shoppers mob a supermarket to buy salt in Lanzhou, China Photo: AP

By Gordon Rayner, Chief Reporter 7:30AM GMT 18 Mar 2011

Russia saw a run on red wine and seaweed; in China people were buying massive amounts of salt, and chemists as far away as Bulgaria reported shortages of iodine tablets.

No matter how many scientists were wheeled out to reassure people that radiation levels outside Japan would not pose a threat to health, widespread distrust of official advice meant thousands placed more faith in old wives' tales.

In China, the government called for calm after shoppers bought huge quantities of salt in the belief that it contains enough iodine to block radiation.

Potassium iodide tablets, which prevent the body from absorbing radiation, have been handed out in Japan to those living near the stricken Fukushima power plant, and in China iodine is added to salt to help prevent iodine deficiency.

The mere mention of the word iodine was enough to prompt panic buying of salt amid fears that a change in the wind direction could blow a radioactive cloud across China from its near neighbour.