Putin's nuclear threat is prompting Europeans to panic-buy iodine as they think it may protect them from radiation, reports say

• Putin ordered Russia's nuclear weapons to be placed on high alert last week.
• Europeans are buying iodine because they think it could protect them from radiation, reports say.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's nuclear threat is prompting Europeans to panic-buy iodine because they believe it may protect them from radiation poisoning, multiple reports say.

Some pharmacies in Bulgaria, Poland, and the Czech Republic have sold out of iodine since Putin launched an invasion into Ukraine and ordered Russia's nuclear weapons to be placed on high alert, Reuters reported.

Nikolay Kostov, the chair of the Pharmacies Union, told Reuters that Bulgarian pharmacies had sold as much iodine in the past six days as they usually sell each year.

In Poland, the number of pharmacies selling iodine more than doubled after demand soared, Reuters reported.

Officials in other European countries including Belgium, France, and the Netherlands said they were also seeing an increase in demand despite being further away from the conflict in Ukraine, local media reported.

In Belgium, nearly 30,000 residents picked up iodine tablets, which are normally offered for free in pharmacies, the Brussels Times reported. The pharmacists' union in France reported a significant increase in people requesting the medication, Le Parisien reported.

Iodine — which can be taken in pill or syrup form — can be used to help protect people from developing thyroid cancer, which can be caused by radiation.

However, if radiation is not present in the body, taking iodine is not protective and could cause harm, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

European officials said this week that taking the medication was currently not necessary and would not help in the case of a nuclear war.

"The current situation in Ukraine does not require taking tablets of iodine," The Federal Agency for Nuclear Control tweeted. "Only take iodine on the recommendation of the authorities."

Dana Drabova, the head of the Czech State Office for Nuclear Safety, also tweeted: "You ask a lot about iodine tablets ... as radiation protection when (God forbid) nuclear weapons are used, they are basically useless."