Skip to main content

Take a Seaweed Pill and Call the Police in the Morning

Greenpeace Canada Seaweed PillsHat tips to Stephen Dubner's Freakonmics blog post, When Scare Tactics Backfire, and TreeHugger for pointing us to this rather bizarre story out of Ontario. Per the National Post,
Toronto police issued an alert today after residents in Rosedale and downtown received an information placard from Greenpeace Canada warning against radiation from nuclear power plants — with a little green pill attached.

The pill was said to be potassium iodine, which is meant to prevent thyroid cancer, one of the most common radiation-caused illnesses.

Officers arrived to a home in the Bloor and Sherbourne streets area Saturday evening and seized the pill.

“It’s an unknown substance in pill form being delivered… we’re kind of concerned,” Staff Sergeant Dan Sabadics said. “We treat it as unknown and hazardous until we know what it is.”

Investigators have determined that it is not hazardous but Health Canada is doing further analysis to identify it.

“Since then, Greenpeace has agreed to cease and they’ve turned over all remaining [pills]. We’re just testing them now,” he said.

“It seemed like a good idea at the time. But once it’s explained that you’re delivering pills and a child [might] get a hold of this. What effect it will have on a child? We don’t know. There are liability issues.”
Wondering if Jon Evans, brand manager [former?] for Disaronno Amaretto, had a hand in this marketing campaign gone awry.

Comments

Anonymous said…
It is a medical fact that KI can cause allergic reactions in some people. I think the incidence rate is about 2 per million people. I always advise people not to use KI. The risks are greater taking it than not, even in a nuclear accident. It is a thyroid blocker and will only be effective if the contaminant is "fresh", i.e., effluent from an operating core, relatively fresh fuel, or a nuclear weapon recently detonated.

By taking this action, Greenpiece is poisoning the population, exposing people to risks much greater than any from nuclear accidents.
Pedro said…
The pills would work in case of a great accident like Chernobyl where high incidence of tyroid cancer has been detected. So, their action it's not completely crazy. Of course distributing this product you may be taking some risks and that would not be acceptable.
lad said…
And these are the people who feel qualified to advise the Ontario government on our energy supply plan? Those old unintended consequences just keep coming back to haunt them. Why the mainstream media even continues to give their opinions serious credence is beyond me.

Popular posts from this blog

Wednesday Update

From NEI’s Japan micro-site: NRC, Industry Concur on Many Post-Fukushima Actions Industry/Regulatory/Political Issues • There is a “great deal of alignment” between the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the industry on initial steps to take at America’s nuclear energy facilities in response to the nuclear accident in Japan, Charles Pardee, the chief operating officer of Exelon Generation Co., said at an agency briefing today. The briefing gave stakeholders an opportunity to discuss staff recommendations for near-term actions the agency may take at U.S. facilities. PowerPoint slides from the meeting are on the NRC website. • The International Atomic Energy Agency board has approved a plan that calls for inspectors to evaluate reactor safety at nuclear energy facilities every three years. Governments may opt out of having their country’s facilities inspected. Also approved were plans to maintain a rapid response team of experts ready to assist facility operators recoverin...

Fluor Invests in NuScale

You know, it’s kind of sad that no one is willing to invest in nuclear energy anymore. Wait, what? NuScale Power celebrated the news of its company-saving $30 million investment from Fluor Corp. Thursday morning with a press conference in Washington, D.C. Fluor is a design, engineering and construction company involved with some 20 plants in the 70s and 80s, but it has not held interest in a nuclear energy company until now. Fluor, which has deep roots in the nuclear industry, is betting big on small-scale nuclear energy with its NuScale investment. "It's become a serious contender in the last decade or so," John Hopkins, [Fluor’s group president in charge of new ventures], said. And that brings us to NuScale, which had run into some dark days – maybe not as dark as, say, Solyndra, but dire enough : Earlier this year, the Securities Exchange Commission filed an action against NuScale's lead investor, The Michael Kenwood Group. The firm "misap...

Activists' Claims Distort Facts about Advanced Reactor Design

Below is from our rapid response team . Yesterday, regional anti-nuclear organizations asked federal nuclear energy regulators to launch an investigation into what it claims are “newly identified flaws” in Westinghouse’s advanced reactor design, the AP1000. During a teleconference releasing a report on the subject, participants urged the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to suspend license reviews of proposed AP1000 reactors. In its news release, even the groups making these allegations provide conflicting information on its findings. In one instance, the groups cite “dozens of corrosion holes” at reactor vessels and in another says that eight holes have been documented. In all cases, there is another containment mechanism that would provide a barrier to radiation release. Below, we examine why these claims are unwarranted and why the AP1000 design certification process should continue as designated by the NRC. Myth: In the AP1000 reactor design, the gap between the shield bu...