Iodine Deficiency Levels Alarming Again, Official says

[geovalin]

Khmer Times / Chea Takihiro

Labels on salt packages that say it includes iodine are misleading and as a result iodine deficiency is once again a serious health threat in Cambodia, despite a 2003 sub-decree requiring all salt producers to ensure their product contains iodine, an official said yesterday.

New data shows that iodine deficiency rates are nearing the levels detected in 1997, when 1.7 million Cambodians were estimated to suffer from iodine deficiency, the official said yesterday.

Chan Puong Vathana, a member of the National Sub-committee for Elimination of Iodine Deficiency, said salt producers were failing to abide by the 2003 sub-decree requiring iodine to be added to salt.

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[PETERTHEEATER]

Forty five years ago it was not unusual to see rural people in Isaan with grotesque goitres due to iodine deficiency. The laterite soil throughout the Far East is deficient in iodine and so produce grown and consumed locally does not provide an adequate level of iodine intake to maintain the Thyroid gland in a healthy state.

Two sources rich in iodine are available throughput Thailand, the well known Nahm Bplah (fish sauce) used as a condiment and the humble Bplah Too fish which, because it is steamed after catch can travel without refrigeration and thus is available throughout the kingdom. Nahm Bplah is derived from a marine anchovy and Bplah Too also is a marine shoal fish and very tasty too.

Consequently, when on my travels, I now rarely see people with thyroid goitres.

Seems that Cambodia still has a problem which may be partly due to much of the inland people eating freshwater fish from rivers and Tonle Sap.

My wife uses seal salt bought from the roadside stalls in Samut Songkhran to coat fish BBQd whole. I assume that this salt contains iodine. As far as I know the Thai Government mandates the addition of iodine to processed salt produced in and retailed in Thailand.