Neither fast, nor slow do they die. They get treatment and survive - almost always. Chernobyl had possibly 10 deaths from thyroid cancer. That's the final total. Other Chernobyl cancers may be possible down the road from exposures to other radiation, though much dispute about how many may happen... Thyroid cancer is what all the folks in Japan are worried about from radioactive iodine (which has a half-life of a few days). They should be worried about cesium, not iodine, though most of the exposure is in fact to radioactive iodine.
"Late in 1995, the World Health Organisation<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Health_Organisation> (WHO) linked nearly 700 cases of thyroid cancer among children and adolescents to the Chernobyl disaster, and among these some 10 deaths are attributed to radiation. However, the rapid increase in thyroid cancers detected suggests that some of it at least is an artifact of the screening process. Typical latency time <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latency_time> of radiation-induced thyroid cancer is about 10 years, but the increase in childhood thyroid cancers in some regions was observed as early as 1987. Presumably either the increase is unrelated to the disaster or the mechanisms behind it are not well understood." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster_effects
On Tue, Mar 15, 2011 at 4:03 AM, Fernando Cassia <fcassia at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 15, 2011 at 4:34 AM, lbo83235 <lbo83235 at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---
> > "KI has been erroneously represented as a “magic bullet” of radiation
> protection. KI, if taken properly, only protects against internal radiation
> from radioiodine taken into the body.
> --
>
> It depends if you want to die of tyroid cancer fast, or other cancer
> caused by other nuclear elements, some more months down the line.
>
> Choose your poison.
>
> FC
>
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-- Peter Fay http://theclearview.wordpress.com