VANCOUVER — Fear over radiation fallout from Japan reaching B.C. is fuelling a run on radiation-blocking pills, leading to prices up to four times what they were before the disastrous earthquake and tsunami crippled a nuclear power station.

Potassium iodide pills are being flogged for as much as $15 a pill on eBay, with a couple of hopeful sellers posting several unsealed boxes of brands approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for $2,500.

But despite the frenzy, B.C. health officials say there is no need for people thousands of kilometres away to take such precautions. And they warned that taking the pills could cause dangerous side effects.

Dr. Bonnie Henry of the B.C. Centre for Disease Control repeated those cautions Friday, despite the recording of a small amount of radiation at a Californian monitoring station.

“Radiation was not detected in Washington, B.C. or Alaska,” she said. “And the radiation detected in California was not significant. There were very small amounts and they were dispersed by the time they arrived on the West Coast. People here are not going to see any health effects.”

But Jason Metcalfe, who runs a film-production company, nonetheless has been keeping his eye on the online supply of the pills, which prevent radioactive iodine from being absorbed in the thyroid.

He said he watched one product go from $9 before the quake to $35 this week.

And he said the website supplying the FDA-approved brands are generally sold out and anyone looking for the pills online would be “out of luck. Don’t even bother.”

He said his wife was sold a bottle of health supplement iodine from a local health products store that was labelled iodine but had a paper label calling it potassium iodide wrapped around it with an elastic band, for $6.99. The amount of iodine was well below the amount recommended for blocking radiation.

“Nowhere on the bottle did it say potassium, but that was the implied context of the sale for everyone in the store,” he said.

The same product online said it helps the thyroid gland function and is important for energy and growth but doesn’t promise to block radiation.

Henry also said radioactive iodine decays in a matter of days and even in a worst-case scenario, people in B.C. would not be at risk of harm.

Vancouver Province

slazaruk@theprovince.com

twitter.com@susanlazaruk