Salt & Human Health: Iodine Deficiency

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has released The State of the World's Children 2007 with statistics from nearly 200 countries around the world on the percentage of households with access to iodized salt. While progress over the past 15 years has been dramatic, its pace has slowed. A decade ago, only 54% of the world's households had access to iodized salt; today it stands at 70%. But it has increased from 66% in 2000 and only from 68% from 2006 to 2007. Country tables are included.

Posted by Dick Hanneman at 02:50 PM | Permalink

"This is not rocket science. It is a very simple way of overcoming a problem and it can be done so easily and if 100 countries in the world have been able to do this and over 100 now have done it, why can't Australia do it?" That's the word from Dr. Cres Eastman who heads the Australian Council for the Control of Iodine Deficiency Disorders (ACCIDD) and is vice-chair of the International Council for the Control of Iodine Deficiency Disorders (ICCIDD). Eastman's comments came in a March 14 interview on Australia's ABC-TV. The story stressed that using iodized salt in bread has been proven successful in Tasmania and advocating broadening manadatory use to breakfast cereals and biscuits -- and perhaps to all processed foods.

An earlier advocacy effort netted Eastman the title "Man who saved a million brains." Keep up the good work, Cres.

Posted by Dick Hanneman at 12:00 PM | Permalink