„Why is everyone hoarding iodine tablets?“

The thyroid needs iodine to make its hormone. The element is contained in many foods and is constantly absorbed by the body. A reactor accident at a nuclear power plant produces radioactive iodine, which the thyroid absorbs in the same way as non-radioactive iodine. This causes the thyroid gland to be radioactively irradiated from the inside and the thyroid cells degenerate, which may result in thyroid cancer. However, the thyroid cannot absorb iodine indefinitely and will eventually be “full”. You take advantage of this by overfilling the thyroid gland with iodine by taking tablets, so that radioactive iodine created after a reactor accident is absorbed by the body but immediately excreted again and does not remain in the thyroid gland.