Anti-salt spokeman decries iodized salt
Last March 21-22, the World Health Organization gathered experts in iodine nutrition together with anti-salt lobbyists, members of World Action on Salt and Health (WASH) to a meeting in Luxembourg to discuss concerns the anti-salt crowd had that WHO endorsement of iodized salt was undermining another WHO effort: to reduce dietary salt. Bottom line: the meeting consensus was that the two programs did not compete; those encouraged to eat iodized salt did not increase their intakes of dietary salt.
At least they said they agreed.
In the February 9 issue of The Lancet, the WASH media spokesperson for Australia, Trevor Beard, raised the issue with regard to FSANZ's proposal to require iodized salt be used in bread in New Zealand. He argued against iodizing table salt sold to consumers altogether. Backtracking on the Luxembourg agreement, Beard declared:
Meanwhile, it already seems unethical (primum non nocere)—and clearly self-defeating—to sell the public iodine by adding it to a substance we are now warning them to avoid.
It's almost like the meeting in Luxembourg never happened!