Iodine Tablets Fly off Sonoma Shelves; Residents Fear Radiation Fallout

Sonoma pharmacies have spent hours over the last week fielding customer requests for iodine tablets, which mitigate the negative effects of radiation, from residents fearing cross-Pacific fallout from .

Stores ran out of iodine earlier this week, and despite repeated efforts haven't been able to replenish.

"We can’t get them - we’ve tried to order them from our wholesaler, but it's just not available," said a pharmacy technician, who didn't wish to be named. "We get patients asking for it all day."

is expecting a shipment in Thursday afternoon, an employee confirmed, though it took repeated phone calls to wholesalers to receive the pills, pending a national supply shortage.

But radiation fallout, unlike a tsunami, isn't able to travel the more than 5,000 miles from Japan to California.

Bay Area health officials are advising people that the threat of radiation exposure is not there, and that people should avoid taking the potassium iodide tablets.

Potassium iodide tablets are given to people exposed to excessive radiation to block absorption of radioactive iodide.

"Using potassium iodide when inappropriate could have potential serious side effects such as abnormal heart rhythms, nausea, vomiting, electrolyte abnormalities and bleeding," according to the California Department of Public Health.

On Tuesday, Bay Area health leaders in Contra Costa County issued a notice  saying there appears to be no risk at present to area residents from radioactivity leaking from damaged reactors in Japan.

"Given the thousands of miles between here and Japan, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission does not expect to find any harmful levels of radioactivity in Hawaii, Alaska or the West Coast," according to the statement.

Sonoma County health officials are directing residents to their website, which offers similar information.

The County has designated a health advisor contact for doctors, who have been calling officials repeatedly due to increased demands from patients for the pills, according to officials.

The California Department of Public Health also has published "Frequently Asked Questions" about radiation, citing the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission saying there's no danger to California from Japan's nuclear emergency and advising against taking potassium iodide.

Other advice from Bay Area health officials is to "get prepared in the event of an emergency."

Preparedness tips can be found at http://www.cchealth.org/topics/emergencies/.

On a national level, technology is being used to enhance preparedness.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency  said Tuesday it is installing additional radiation monitors in the Western United States, including Alaska and Hawaii, and in Guam. The agency has monitors already in place in California, including one in San Francisco, whose readings are accessible to the public at http://www.epa.gov/cdx.

Reactors in a nuclear power complex 140 miles northeast of Tokyo have leaked radiation in the wake of the massive 8.9-magnitude earthquake that struck Japan Thursday night California time.

The quake and the resulting tsunami knocked out the reactors' cooling systems, and resulting explosions, fires and overheating of fuel rods at the power plants have sent radiation into the atmosphere. Japanese authorities so far have not been able to bring the disaster under control, spawning fears of a partial meltdown and a much larger release of radioactive materials.

Keri Brenner and Charles Burress contributed to this report