Japan Earthquake Radiation Panic

US radiation panic continues despite assurances from Obama, health experts.
NBC Nightly News (3/17, story 3, 0:45, Williams) reported, "President Obama made an unannounced visit to the Japanese Embassy in Washington this morning. ... Later he spoke from the Rose Garden at the White House about the situation in Japan for the first time since Friday." President Obama was shown saying, "We do not expect harmful levels of radiation to reach the United States, whether it's the West Coast, Hawaii, Alaska, or US territories in the Pacific."
ABC World News (3/17, story 6, 1:30, Besser) reported that the President's speech "reassured" Americans that they are "not going to see in this country harmful levels of radiation here. That doesn't mean they won't measure any, but harmful levels" are "very different." NBC Nightly News (3/17, story 5, 2:15, Williams) reported, "Again, [radiation is] a huge local issue in Japan, and facts are one thing, fears are another."
The Wall Street Journal (3/18, Hobson, subscription required) notes that, in Japan, the primary concern is for pregnant women, because radiation exposure could cause birth defects, cognitive problems and cancer in developing fetuses. The AP (3/17, McDonald, Mason) reported that thyroid cancer is "considered the most serious immediate risk to anyone exposed closest to the plant. But potassium iodide pills can prevent it by blocking radioactive iodine's absorption."
Another Wall Street Journal (3/18, Naim, subscription required) article says that the Swedish Defense Research Institute detected Low Levels of Radioactive Material in the Pacific Ocean. However, the Journal quotes the institute's director Lars-Erik De Geer as saying the level detected poses no danger to the US or other Asian countries.
Bloomberg News (3/18, Sullivan, Olson, Chediak) reports that radiation from "stricken nuclear reactors in Japan poses far less threat" to Americans "than 1950s-era atomic weapons testing or the 1986 Chernobyl accident," weather and public health experts said. In addition, the Christian Science Monitor (3/17) noted that US scientists continue to repeat that Fukushima is not Chernobyl, "and even Chernobyl was not as deadly as popularly believed."
Still, the Wall Street Journal (3/18, Sweet, subscription required) notes that the Environmental Protection Agency said it had installed seven additional radiation-monitoring devices in Guam, Hawaii and the Aleutian Islands. Bloomberg News (3/18, Bliss) says that US authorities intensified efforts to detect radiation on flights arriving from Japan.
FDA issues warning about anti-radiation treatment scams. USA Today (3/18, Sternberg) reports that the Food and Drug Administration warned Thursday that "many of the ads for 'anti-radiation' potassium iodide pills flooding the Internet may be scams run by hucksters seeking to profit from the Japan nuclear scare." Moreover, the agency said people in the US "shouldn't be taking the pills anyway, because no radiation from the Fukushima reactors in Japan has been detected in the US." FDA's National Health Fraud Coordinator Gary Coody said this week's "atmosphere of fear," which sent consumers "streaming into drugstores and onto the Web to buy the pills, has proven to be fertile ground for companies hawking unapproved products."
The AP (3/17) reported that the Illinois Department of Public Health is "warning residents against taking potassium iodide to prevent radiation sickness." Public Health Director Dr. Damon Arnold said that "it's unlikely radiation from damaged nuclear plants in Japan will reach the US," and it is "not worth the risk of suffering from potassium iodide's possible side effects."