In Denmark, pharmacies quickly sold out of potassium iodide tablets. In Sweden, imports of food from the USSR and five Eastern European countries were banned, a radioactive particle was reportedly discovered in a nursing mother’s breast milk, and government switchboards jammed with calls from people asking if it was safe to drink water or even go outside. In Communist Poland, where state television assured the public that they were not in danger, authorities nonetheless distributed stable iodine to children and restricted the sale of dairy products.
