In the October 2006 issue of Thyroid, (vol.16, no. 10) , the Public Health Committee of the American Thyroid Association stated that,

"The fetus is totally dependent in early pregnancy on maternal thyroxine for normal brain development. Adequate maternal dietary intake of iodine during pregnancy is essential for maternal thyroxine production and later for thyroid function in the fetus."

They went on to recommend a minimum of 150 µg of iodine supplementation on a daily basis. At the time they suggested that this be best accomplished through the use of vitamin/mineral supplements taken during pregnancy and lactation.

In that same issue Dr. Daniel Glinoer , professor of internal medicine at the University Hospital Saint Pierre, in Brussels, suggested that it would be very worthwhile to consider universal salt iodization as practiced in some countries, rather than the use of supplements. This debate over the best iodine delivery vehicle was highlighted by Dick in his June 12 blog, "Thyroid doctors clash over iodine nutrition for expectant mothers ."

Continuing the debate, in the most recent issue of Thyroid (May 2007, vol. 17, no. 5) , Kevin Sullivan of the department of Epidemiology at the Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University in Atlanta, GA, stresses the importance of ensuring that pregnant and lactating women receive sufficient iodine to prevent irreversible brain damage in infants. He refers to the recent NHANES data indicating that most pregnant women in the US are currently at a borderline level of iodine intake.

Sullivan goes on to make a strong recommendation that iodine fortification should be carried out on all salt concluding that used in food processing. In fact, the Salt Institute is currently discussing this matter internally and with foreign associates to ensure that there is no industry concerns about the universal iodization of salt.

The Salt Institute recently made a strong recommendation to the USDA WIC program that they make a specific effort to ensure that pregnant women and new mothers understand the importance of consuming iodized salt. Up to that point, the WIC program had made no effort to highlight the importance of consuming iodized as opposed to non-iodized salt.

As pointed out in a recent Food Technology 'Perspectives' article, in early 1924, the US salt industry produced and marketed iodized table salt for country-wide consumption. From that moment on, with a simple jiggle of the salt shaker, the US salt industry dispatched the scourges of iodine deficiency diseases - goiter, cretinism, hypothyroid coma and iodine deficiency-induced mental retardation - into the dustbin of Americans medical history. Of course, this practice ia now being adopted on a world-wide basis .