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The crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear power station has already prompted stores of potassium iodide tablets to run low in the United States. And even though health experts have said that there is virtually no risk of harmful radiation exposure stateside, it hasn't calmed the brisk sales of radiation sickness prevention methods.

In more organic minded circles, consumers appear to be making a run at a homeopathic preventative: non-radioactive iodine enriched sea kelp. There's enough demand, at least, to inspire a few mini-trend stories on the subject. Here's a few we noticed:

'Hippies Fearing Radiation Buy Out Whole Foods' Sea Kelp' - LAist details the concerns of the upscale coastal consumer in an aggregation of a West Hollywood Patch report describing how health food stores have sold out of sea kelp tablets and dried sea kelp. "Should the radiation cloud over Los Angeles actually come to pass, some hippies will be well-prepared, after having bought all the sea kelp off the shelves at Whole Foods," LAist quips.

Radiation Fears Drive Dales of Kelp on West Coast - In the most authoritative take on the issue, Reuters reports that consumers are turning to Seaweed snacks, blue-green algae liquid and even miso soup and brown rice, "because of an anecdote that it helped a Japanese doctor protect against radiation decades ago." The news organization reported that a stay-at-home Los Angeles mother is now packing her children's lunches with seaweed as a radiation preventative.