Surgeon General: Buying Iodide a "Precaution", Posted by Meosha Eaton

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The fear that a nuclear cloud could float from the shores of Japan to the shores of California has some people making a run on iodine tablets. Pharmacists across California report being flooded with requests.

State and county officials spent much of Tuesday trying to keep people calm by saying that getting the pills wasn't necessary, but then the United States surgeon general supported the idea as a worthy "precaution."

U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin was in the Bay Area touring a peninsula hospital. NBC Bay Area reporter Damian Trujillo asked her about the run on tablets and Dr. Benjamin said although she wasn't aware of people stocking up, she did not think that would be an overreaction. She said it was right to be prepared.

On the other side of the issue is Kelly Huston of the California Emergency Management Agency. Huston said state officials, along with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the California Energy Commission, were monitoring the situation and said people don't need to buy the pills.

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"Even if we had a radiation release from Diablo Canyon (in San Luis Obispo County), iodide would only be issued to people living within a 10-mile radius of the plant," Huston added.

Santa Clara County's public health officer Dr. Martin Fenstersheib told the Mercury News he also does not recommend getting the tablets, adding some people can be severely allergic to the iodine.

"There is no reason for doing it," Fenstersheib told the paper.

Either way, the pills are hard to get. eBay prices have skyrocketed.

HEALTH ALERT: Study Links Brain Activity and Cell Phone Use

Are cellphones harmful to your health or not? A new study sheds more on light on the on-going debate. Cell phones are a part of just about everyone's life, but some doctors are giving them a fuzzy reception. New research finds holding a cell phone next to your head for 50 minutes does increase brain activity.

The study looked at 47 healthy adults over a year as they held cell phones to the left and right side of their head. They used PET scans to measure brain activity and found increased brain metabolism nearest the antenna. Dr. Nora Volkow, the study's author, said, "The study shows that the human brain is sensitive to electro-magnetic radiations that are emitted by cell phones."

Dr. Carolyn Brockington said, "This really just a first step we don't know what the findings really mean. And that I think the recommendations in general are obviously you limit your cell phone use." While other studies have looked at a potential risk of brain cancer from cell phones, this study did not. Its authors say more research is necessary to find a link to the disease