Download Questions and answers on iodine deficiency in CEE/CIS

Questions and answers on iodine deficiency in CEE/CIS
1.
What is iodine deficiency and why do we need to address the problem?
Iodine is a micronutrient that is essential for growth and mental development. The problem
is especially serious for pregnant women and young children. During pregnancy, even mild
deficiency can retard foetal development, lowering a child’s learning ability for life, or
causing even more serious mental and physical retardation.
Iodine is a trace element found mostly in soil, but soil in many parts of the world does not
contain enough iodine. Crops, livestock and the human diet that depends on them thus
become deficient in iodine. Even in areas where this deficiency is low, children can suffer a
10 to 15 per cent reduction in learning ability. This can affect not only the child’s
performance, but also the economic and social future of entire nations.
The amounts of iodine the human body needs are minute – just a teaspoon throughout the
lifetime. But it has to be provided on a daily basis, forever.
2.
We have many food fortification technologies available in our region. Why
salt?
Iodizing salt is the simplest, least costly, and most effective way of reaching the largest
numbers of people with the iodine they need throughout their lifetime. Despite the
availability of other technologies, many countries in the industrialized and developing world
have been iodizing salt for decades.
3.
Why are the region’s salt iodization levels so low?
Some countries in the region – (insert some countries here) – are successfully iodizing salt.
In others, there have been constraints to progress such as …..
Salt iodization levels in the region were high in the past, and, political will and public
commitment, the region can show global leadership in salt iodization.
4.
Should salt iodization be mandatory? Don’t consumers have a right to
choose?
This issue of the rights of the individual against the public good has prompted debate in
other areas. Mandating seat belt use for children has resulted in a decrease in child car
fatalities. Bans on smoking exist in many public places. Water is fluoridated in some
countries. Education is compulsory in many.
But the right of consumers to choose iodized or non-iodized salt must be seen in the context
of the overarching right of all children to develop and achieve their full potential, as set out
in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which has been ratified by the region’s
countries. Iodine deficiency directly infringes on that right by reducing children’s ability to
learn.
5.
Isn’t mandatory salt iodization protectionist and therefore contrary to the
concept of free trade?
The European Union allows each member to determine whether it chooses to make salt
iodization mandatory – a clear indication that it views salt iodization as important for its
members. The issue has not come up in the context of a World Trade Organization (WTO)
free trade violation. But by ensuring there is a strong case for national salt iodization and
good regulatory strategies, governments can protect themselves against the charge of being
protectionist. To date, there is no precedent for a challenge to existing salt iodization laws in
any country.
6.
The region suffered greatly as a result of the nuclear fall-out from the
Chernobyl accident. Can salt iodization protect against the threat of thyroid
cancer posed by nuclear fall-out?
In a nuclear emergency, radioactive iodine is often released into the air and can travel
hundreds of miles. Inhaled or ingested radioactive iodine will concentrate in the thyroid
gland and may cause thyroid cancer, especially in children. The thyroid gland will absorb
radioactive iodine until it becomes saturated.
Consuming iodized salt eliminates iodine deficiency and thus lessens the amount of
radioactive iodine that will be absorbed by the thyroid gland. An iodine sufficient diet will
also increase the effectiveness of the potassium iodide or iodate pill that is usually provided
and taken after a nuclear emergency. Studies have shown that where iodine deficiency exists,
the effectiveness of potassium iodide or iodate pills taken after a nuclear accident decreases
significantly.
Iodizing salt therefore protects populations in the case of a nuclear emergency, although
those exposed to radioactive iodine must still take the potassium iodide pill. Because
radioactive iodine exists in the environment for about a month after its release, consuming
iodized salt cannot protect against thyroid cancer from fall-out that has already taken place.
It should be noted that other radioactive fallouts could also be associated with a nuclear
emergency. Potassium iodate and salt iodization only protect against radioactive iodine and
not any other effects of a nuclear fall-out.
7.
Does iodizing salt affect the taste and colour of pickles? And can iodized salt
be used for other processed foods?
Iodized salt has successfully been used in processed foods for decades in many countries
including many industrialized countries. For pickling also iodized salt is being used widely.
The Codex Alimentarius also recommends/accepts the use of potassium iodate/iodide as an
additive to salt as does the United States Food and Drug Administration (as a dietary source
of iodine). Concerns exist however about the negative effect iodized salt may have on the
quality of processed food, in particular on taste, colour, and texture.
In response to these concerns, a number of studies have been conducted to determine
whether iodized salt, as compared to non-iodized salt, influences the processing and/or
quality (taste, colour, flavour, texture) of foods. Reports of studies on a variety of foods
such as meat products, cheese, canned vegetables (tomato juice, green beans, whole kernel
sweet maize, sauerkraut), bulk sauerkraut, white bread, pickled olives, potato chips, suggest
that salt iodized either with potassium iodide or with potassium iodate does not influence
the quality of these foods.
In 1995, UNICEF's Nutrition Section commissioned a literature review and some
experiments. It concluded that neither salt containing potassium iodide nor potassium iodate
had any adverse effects on food quality. These results were further supported/confirmed by
studies conducted in the Middle East and in India on the use of iodized salt for pickling. In
fact, the India study even suggested that iodized salt may enhance the shelf life as there was
no fungal growth on the pickles prepared with iodized salt.
Recently, concerns have also been expressed about the use of iodized salt for drying fish, a
common practice in countries of East Asia. One study published in the Asia Pacific Journal
of Clinical Nutrition in 1998 found that there were no significant differences in the quality of
the dried and smoked fish and pork products, and shrimp pastes prepared with iodized salt.
The agreed upon strategy for sustainable elimination of iodine deficiency is the iodization of
all edible salt intended for human and animal consumption which includes salt used for food
processing as well. Iodized salt can be safely used for food processing and pickling as well.
Countries where concerns about use of iodized salt for processing or pickling of food items
are brought up, are highly recommended to conduct studies to confirm the effect iodized
salt has on processing of appropriate local food items.