Salt sales soar in China amid Japan nuclear crisis

[The Straight Story]

Salt sales soar in China amid Japan nuclear crisis

BEIJING — Worried shoppers stripped stores of salt in Beijing, Shanghai and other parts of China on Thursday in the false belief it can guard against radiation exposure, even though any fallout from a crippled Japanese nuclear power plant is unlikely to reach the country.

The panic shopping was triggered by rumours that iodized salt can help ward off radiation poisoning -- part of the swirl of misinformation crisscrossing the region in the wake of Japan's nuclear emergency.

The rumours have flown widely. Text messages on mobile phones have circulated about nuclear plumes spreading from Japan throughout Asia. Rumours also spread that salt was adequate protection for radiation sickness.

Supermarkets in the capital of Beijing and many cities across the country have run out of salt in the last several days as a wave of panic buying spread across provinces from eastern Zhejiang to southern Guangdong to western Sichuan.

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/World/20110317/salt-sales-china-110317/