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The doctor did always say too much salt was unhealthy.

But for one Chinese man it wasn’t consumption of salt but rushing to buy 6.5 tonnes of the stuff amid a panic about radiation from Japan’s nuclear disaster that ended up being bad for his financial health.

According to a report in China’s state-run China Daily, a certain Mr Guo bought 260 bags of salt last week as rumours spread in China that sea salt would become contaminated by radiation from Japan, and also that iodized salt could help ward off radiation sickness.

The salt, plus the transportation of it to his rented apartment in Wuhan, cost him US$4,000 and took up more than half of his place. Guo, whose family operates several restaurants in Lanzhou,  miles away from Wuhan, had bought the salt after prices spiked 85 per cent, according to the China Daily.

But the panic-buying that cause prices to rocket subsided after just a few days, however, and Guo found himself stuck with the salt. As the China Daily reported:

When Guo tried to move the bulk he found it impossible to get it to Lanzhou because he had no salt-transport license, and that it was under strict government control.

It was also hard trying to return the salt since he had forgotten to get a receipt from the seller. Then he thought he might just as well eat his loss and sell the salt on the open market but was told that it was illegal to resell the material.

Guo also found himself in a further trouble after his predicament was reported by local media online – Chinese netizens lambasted him on internet forums for being a speculator and a salt-hoarder.

The attention was not all bad, however. When local reporters returned to Guo’s house on Friday they found that he had managed to sell nearly all the salt to sympathetic neighbours and nearby restaurant owners, though he lost nearly Rmb10,000 in the process.

In characteristic Chinese style, however, the reporter noted at the end of his article that:

“Yesterday afternoon, we reported the situation to the municipal salt affairs department, who has said they will investigate the matter”.

Related reading:
Salt rush slideshow, Caixin