my "indirect iodine" discovery: radiation protection?

NOTE: I tried to find a forum for water in general and could not, this was as close as I could find - shouldn't there be a forum regarding various water related matters ?

Ok, this is primarily about iodine and its effects, but also about water purification and possibly anti-radiation potential. Here's the story:
Once upon a time I had a bottle of Polar Pure in my gear


(No longer available here in the USA)
- Interesting note: My jar was BLUE when I got it, Iodine turned the color, like in the included photo...
I kept it in an odd Tupperware container. It had been sitting for maybe over a year or even more. When I went through my gear, I found that the Tupperware container, normally a semi-transparent white-ish had turned almost completely 'iodine' colored! Some unknown time later, I then used that same Tupperware container to make a covered sunglasses holder. Not much later, when I took my sunglasses out of the container, they too had been similarly affected. They were black, but had a discernible tint to them, especially when putting them on and seeing through the lenses, which now had the tint, and interestingly, things looked a bit different, and it even seemed that some details or colors or what-not were a little more visible. I am not sure how long this continued or if it has been permanent, since the sunglasses broke later, and the Tupperware container is somewhat permanently covered so that I cannot see.

Here's where I find particular interest in this phenomenon:
This was caused by the Iodine crystals in the polar pure jar, which is made of glass with a metal lid - no liquid to leak or anything like that.
This was essentially caused by the iodine radiation as far as I can figure - and that's the reason why I am posting this. I did some net searching and have found pretty much nothing about this kind of phenomenon.
I just purchase some tiny glass vials

and will be getting some new Iodine Crystals to put in them. One project is for long-term water storage: I will put or hang the tiny sealed vial of Iodine Crystals in the water container to keep the water purified over time, without having to put any Iodine itself into the water. If this works, I will get the benefit of iodine purification without tainting the water, as the Iodine radiation is what does the trick, but will do it through the sealed glass vial! What I am also wondering though, is if I could hang another tiny vial from a neck chain and get the Iodine benefit against Fukishima or other radiation, without causing myself and health hazards. I think knowledgeable input/replies to this subject might be very valuable ! Thank you.

John Abacene wrote: What I am also wondering though, is if I could hang another tiny vial from a neck chain and get the Iodine benefit against Fukishima or other radiation, without causing myself and health hazards. I think knowledgeable input/replies to this subject might be very valuable ! Thank you.

Ummmm.......no. The reason people take iodine to "protect against radiation" is so that the body will not take up any I-131, which is radioactive and problematic for health, that might be present in the environment.

I think what you have observed is slow release of iodine from your not so hermetically sealed container. You would observe the same thing if you had a tightly capped, but not hermetically sealed, container of bromine or chlorine as well. Bromine, chlorine, and iodine are all quite volatile, and can exploit the tiniest crevice to leak out from where they are and then react with the first organic molecule they come across -- in this case, the plastic Tupperware and the plastic sunglasses.

John A: I agree with John E. about the most likely reason for the phenomenon you witnessed, In fact after seeing the same tint on all iodine bottles, I was drawn to the polar pure
bottle the first time I saw it in a Backpacking store just outside of Saint Elsewhere ! While I can still get the little iodine bottles you were supposed dab on all cuts and scraps to
protect yourself from the cootes I am a little disheartened to learn Polar Pure Is not Generally on the Market ! I am sure that some government official had a similar experience to
yours and decided that the "American Public needed to be protected from this possible exposure.

THe Iodine probably in combining with/into the structure of your glasses made them brittle, a common effect in some materials when exposed to Halogens !

I will locate my stash of polar pure dip the neck in soft wax and further isolate it from my gear, only putting it back in just before trips to the woods and start looking in backpacking
stores for backups ! Big AL

The reason you supposedly can't get the iodine crystals (here) is because they had become notorious for use in making illegal drugs, not because of any safety concern about the Iodine itself. The crystals can still be purchsed from overseas.

Iodine does have minor radiation, and that is what causes or helps the Iodine to impregnate things. Think about this: Why would Iodine change the color of the glass bottle? It is because the glass has become impregnated in some way. Just leaking out of the bottle would not do that. It would act like anything else leaking out, it would be affected by gravity, and would coat the bottom of something unless it had enough volume to fill a container. The idione is not a liquid filling the glass jar or filling the Tupperware container I had it in. It is doing something else. There are only two ways to have the effect I have witnessed: #1 It sublimated directly from a solid to a gas, and that Iodone gas could have filled the container, almost universally filling and tinting it. - But I'm pretty certain that is not something Iodine does, and if it did, it would be well known. Also, if it were sublimating nd just leaking out, then later when the Tupperware container was sittting open for unknown amount of days, it would have "leaked" out of that readily, with no obstruction whatsoever. #2: EXPOSURE, consisting of, or aided by Iodine's natural radiation.
The Glass of the Polar Pure jar was penetrated and in doing so, impregnated; the same happened to the Tupperware container. At a later time, when I had my sunglasses in the Tupperware case I had made, any 'leaking' Iodine would have gone its way, out into the air or whatever, freely dispersed and all but gone. That is not what happened. My sunglasses were later "exposed" to the Iodine that had impregnated the Tupperware container, and also became impregnated. This is not a case of something just "leaking" out, this is about things altered by EXPOSURE in close proximity.

For what it's worth, Polar Pure is again available in the US. For example, see Amazon.