Nutrient that means so much to health

Bhutan lies in an iodine deficient belt in the Himalayas, where natural iodine is washed away from the soil and crops are deficient in this essential micronutrient. As a result, the population suffered extremely high rates of goitre and iodine deficiency disorders even as late as the 1980s.

A 1983 UNICEF study showed that about 65 per cent of the people had goitre, cretinism and other diseases caused by the lack of iodine in the diet. UNICEF helped set up a salt iodization plant two years later in an effort to iodize all table salt.

By 1996, the strategy had reduced to 14 per cent the proportion of people suffering from goitre. Today, with UNICEF support, Bhutan is set to eradicate such disorders by the new millennium.

Children, who faced the greatest risk, are clearly the biggest beneficiaries of such initiatives.

The effort is sustained by educating people in the proper storage and use of iodized salt and ensuring that iodized salt is the only salt consumed.