L.A. sees supply shopping surge amid radiation fears
Gas masks hang on display at the Army & Navy Military Surplus Store in the Van Nuys section of Los Angeles on Friday March 18, 2011. The store saw a surge of wary customers seeking disaster preparedness supplies as a radioactive plume from Japan's crippled nuclear reached Southern California, even though state and local officials said radiation testing showed no threat. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)
LOS ANGELES >> A military surplus store in Los Angeles saw a surge of wary customers seeking disaster preparedness supplies Friday as a radioactive plume from Japan’s crippled nuclear reactors reached Southern California, though government officials said the dissipated radiation was no threat.
Manager Mark Buehre said Van Nuys Army and Navy Store has been doing brisk business all week because of the Japan quake, and at least a dozen customers had bought gas masks Friday as radiation worries circulated, though the masks aren’t made to protect against radiation.
“It’s moving pretty good, at a steady pace,” Buehre said. “People are concerned.”
Another military supplier in Maine reported a big bump in orders from California for masks and chemical suits.
Buehre said most customers haven’t been seeking radiation protection but food rations, survival blankets, water purification tablets and other items to fill out their home earthquake kits.
Owner Benjamin Susman said he needed to add a trailer to his truck because of the volume of supplies he had to pick up in downtown Los Angeles which, he said, “is terrific in this economy.”
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Buehre said he had gotten many calls seeking potassium iodide pills, which people take to protect against thyroid cancer, but the store does not carry them.
State officials said Friday that potassium iodide is only appropriate for much higher levels of radiation, and Californians should avoid the pills because of potential negative side effects.
The U.S. Department of Energy said minuscule amounts of several radioactive isotopes had reached a Sacramento monitoring station Friday, but the doses a person normally receives daily from rocks, bricks, the sun and other natural background sources are 100,000 times greater than the dose rates detected at the station.
The South Coast Air Quality Management District said in a statement that officials have yet to detect increased levels of radiation exposure in Southern California above normal background levels.
