Swedish Embassy Mysteriously Retracts "Take Potassium Iodide" Statement

I'm sure many of you saw this story earlier today from the Japan Times :

search.japantimes.co.jp...

"While most embassies have specified that iodide tablets do not need to be taken at present and that citizens will be told when it is necessary, the Swedish Embassy is recommending on its website that citizens within 250 km of the Fukushima plant take them once every three days.

An embassy official was unavailable for comment.

"The recommendation by the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority that all Swedes who are staying within a radius of 250 km from the Fukushima No. 1 power plant to take iodide tablets every three days is still valid," the embassy's website, last updated Saturday, says. "Best protection against radioactive iodine is to take iodide tablets before the exposure, as doing so afterward will prove too late."



I'd be scared if I lived in Japan and found out that a foreign government was advising their citizens to take KI, but the Japanese government was telling me it was still "safe" to drink the water?!

I was expecting that other foreign nations would also advise popping KI in the coming weeks, but after visiting the Swedish Embassy's website, I'm not so sure:

www.swedenabroad.com...

"The Swedish Radiation Safety Authority also points out that the risk for large fall-outs is now less evident than before which also applies to fall-outs of radioactive iodine. Consequently, there is no reason any longer for Swedes within the Tokyo area to take iodine tablets."


Would someone please explain to me how an embassy can go from:

"Best protection against radioactive iodine is to take iodide tablets before the exposure, as doing so afterward will prove too late."

TO....

"Consequently, there is no reason any longer for Swedes within the Tokyo area to take iodine tablets."

IN A MATTER OF DAYS?

I'm seeing a big red flag here!

What do you guys think about this?

Whenever you read about the swedish government you should keep in mind that these people needed more then 24 hours to even REACT TO and make a statement about that little tsunami that killed hundreds of swedes on the beaches of Thailand back in 2004.
It was christmas time you see, and all the important people were home with their families.
No one could be reached to make any kind of important decision.

When they eventually realized there was a catastrophe that involved swedish casualties on the other side of the world, it took several more days to get some kind of help there.
When help finally arrived most swedes had already gotten help from other helpful european countries that had emergency personell in place several days earlier.
.
That swedish government is all about signing papers, appointing the correct department to deal with the current issue, signing some more papers, watching how things evolve and finally hoping that the problems are solved by themselves by the time they finally do something about it.

I wouldn't put too much thinking in that statement since it comes from my humble home country's government.
They probably just haven't got a clue what is best to recommend at this moment and are probably fighting between different departments on what to state on that website... thus the mixed messages.

I have a hard time believing it is only mixed messages from within the Swedish government.

I would think that the command to "take KI" would come from the top of the food chain, and only issued after careful consideration.