China tries to tame salt panic buying amid Japan's radiation fears
Now that Chinese consumers have pillaged grocery stores and stocked their cupboards full of iodized salt to cure possible radiation spillover from Japan, the question many are asking is: What should one do with all this salt?
One recommendation circulating online and by email is to self-brine.
"Take 500 grams of iodized salt, remove clothing, use a knife to slice diagonally every 2 to 5 centimeters, wipe the salt evenly over the surface of the body, paying close attention to the armpits and inner thighs. Hang the body in a ventilated, dry place," the recipe said. Its author could not be found.
Others are cautioning against eating all the salt in one sitting. Rumors started yesterday about a woman in Zhejiang province who died consuming her salt in attempt to protect herself from the effects of radiation. Shanghai is just north of Zhejiang, which is more than 1,000 kilometers due west of Japan. There have been no legitimate reports of such a death.
The suggestions from some of China’s citizens indicate that many are taking this sudden hoarding episode, which began after problems at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear-power complex sparked concerns that radiation would spread to China, with a major grain of salt. China’s investors, who reacted to the salt panic yesterday, are also cooling. Shares of Yunnan Salt & Chemical Industry Co. fell 8% Friday after jumping 10% a day earlier.
Meanwhile, China’s Ministry of Commerce, assured citizens in a statement on its website that China’s salt supply is safe. The country has an 80 million ton annual production capacity and edible salt consumption only accounts for 8 million tons, the statement said.
China National Salt Industry Corp., the nation’s largest salt company, also said on its website it would speed up its deliveries to make salt more available.
China isn’t the only country reacting to Japan’s disaster by stockpiling their medicine cabinets. U.S. citizens along the Western coastline have been squirreling away potassium iodide pills. Drugstores in the Philippines have been barraged for iodine-based products. World-wide, many are concerned about the effects Japan’s nuclear crisis will have on the land, the air, and the sea. Questions remain about how far the radiation will reach.
Hoarding is historically a natural reaction to uncertainty. Americans were deeply affected by 1929 stock market crash and World War II and generations of them collected their belongings for fear that a devastating economic depression would reemerge.
Some in China point out that Chinese have lived for decades in a society of instability and famine, which has deeply affected the way people respond to natural and man-made catastrophes. Stockpiling and herd mentality have long been a part of self and familial protection.
"As individuals, we have been taught by our parents to follow the groups then we will be safe,” one commenter on China Realtime said.
