Salt & Human Health: Iodine Deficiency

For the past two years, more than 50 economists under the aegis of the Copenhagen Consensus have been studying the 30 most promising public health interventions to help policy-makers prioritize public health investments. They filed their report today and issued a news release summarizing their findings.

The top three:

1. Combatting micronutrient malnutrition by fortifying foods with vitamin A and zinc.

2. Completing the Doha round of international trade liberalization.

3. Iodizing salt and fortifying foods with iron.

Micronutrient malnutrition ("hidden hunger") is the clear winner with two of the top three "solutions." Fortifying with vitamin A and zinc return $17 for every dollar invested. The benefits of iodizing salt are $9 for every dollar invested.

With the candidates for the Democratic US presidential nomination competing to bash free trade, #2 may gain some political salience. But investing in micronutrient fortification -- including universal salt iodization -- should be high on the public health agenda.

Posted by Dick Hanneman at 05:31 PM | Permalink

Australia and New Zealand have a problem with eroding levels of iodine nutrition for which the universal consensus solution is using iodized salt. Responsibly, FSANZ, the nations' joint regulatory body, has concluded that bakers should be mandated to use iodized salt in their bread. If that proves insufficient, the universe of foods can be expanded. Today, the Salt Institute endorsed the approach for Australia, as it had done earlier for New Zealand.

Replacing plain salt with iodized salt in bread is technologically feasible and well-tested. Relying on iodized salt, of course, is the international standard, and a step-wise approach preserves the flexibilty to go back and fine-tune the rule if ongoing monitoring shows bread alone isn't enough. But it may be enough. FSANZ's analysis estimates that currently 40% of the population is either slightly or seriously iodine-deficient. Using iodized salt in bread should reduce that to less than 10%.

Posted by Dick Hanneman at 04:00 PM | Permalink