What they'll say: "Never take potassium iodide (KI) or give it to others unless you have been specifically advised to do so by public health officials, emergency management officials, or your doctor."
Why: KI pills are among the last things people need immediately after a nuclear blast and aren't worth a mad dash to a pharmacy during the disaster, according to Brooke Buddemeier, a health physicist and radiation expert at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
"Most people seem to think of the potassium iodide, or KI, pills as some type of anti-radiation drug. They are not," Buddemeier previously told Business Insider. "They are for preventing the uptake of radioiodine, which is one radionuclide out of thousands of radionuclides that are out there."
Radioiodine makes up about 0.2% of overall exposure. The pills are useful for longer-terms concerns about contaminated water and food supplies, and blocking radioiodine from concentrating in people's metabolism-regulating thyroid glands.