Iodine lipid enveloped viruses. Iodine probably attacks surface proteins of enveloped viruses, and it may also destabilise membrane fatty acids by reacting with unsaturated carbon bonds. In medicine, a saturated solution of potassium iodide is used to treat acute thyrotoxicosis. It is also used to block uptake of iodine-131 in the thyroid gland (see isotopes section above), when this isotope is used as part of radiopharmaceuticals (such as iobenguane) that are not targeted to the thyroid or thyroid-type tissues. Iodine-131 (usually as iodide) is a component of nuclear fallout, and is particularly dangerous owing to the thyroid gland's propensity to concentrate
Iodine whose main product is sodium nitrate. In total, they can contain at least 0.02% and at most 1% iodine by weight. Sodium iodate is extracted from the caliche and reduced to iodide by sodium bisulfite. This solution is then reacted with freshly extracted iodate, resulting in comproportionation to iodine, which may be filtered off. The caliche was the main source of iodine in the 19th century and continues to be important today, replacing kelp (which is no longer an economically viable source), but in the late 20th century brines emerged as a comparable source. The Japanese Minami Kanto gas field