(Kyodo) - The Chiba prefectural government and the Japan Iodine Industries Association on Friday donated nearly 1,000 kilograms of potassium iodate to families in Cambodia's southern provinces of Kampot and Kep in a move to help combat iodine deficiency disease, according to the U.N. Children's Fund.
The donation was made in Kampot, some 140 kilometers south of the capital Phnom Penh, as part of a nationwide campaign toward universal salt iodization, UNICEF said in a statement.
Potassium iodate is used in the production of iodized salt, which helps combat iodine deficiency.
IDD is the single greatest cause of preventable mental retardation, and is associated with lowered learning capacity and poor school performance among children.
One of the symptoms of IDD is goiter, a swelling of the thyroid gland, found among 12 percent of Cambodian schoolchildren in 1997, the statement said.
"Only 36 percent of families living in Kampot and Kep provinces are using the iodized salt," UNICEF Cambodia's senior program officer Tomoo Hozumi said.
"This is only a half of the national average and really a serious situation. This means a majority of children in these two provinces are not benefiting from iodized salt," he said.
In 2003, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen signed a sub-decree requiring all salt either produced or imported into Cambodia to be iodized.
"In 2000, only slightly more than 10 percent of the families in Cambodia were using iodized salt," Hozumi said. "This situation has dramatically changed, with 70 percent of the Cambodian families consuming iodized salt."
To help reach the goal of elimination of iodine deficiency disorders, the Chiba prefectural government will commit to providing the same quantity of potassium iodate for the next four years.
The donation was made in Kampot, some 140 kilometers south of the capital Phnom Penh, as part of a nationwide campaign toward universal salt iodization, UNICEF said in a statement.
Potassium iodate is used in the production of iodized salt, which helps combat iodine deficiency.
IDD is the single greatest cause of preventable mental retardation, and is associated with lowered learning capacity and poor school performance among children.
One of the symptoms of IDD is goiter, a swelling of the thyroid gland, found among 12 percent of Cambodian schoolchildren in 1997, the statement said.
"Only 36 percent of families living in Kampot and Kep provinces are using the iodized salt," UNICEF Cambodia's senior program officer Tomoo Hozumi said.
"This is only a half of the national average and really a serious situation. This means a majority of children in these two provinces are not benefiting from iodized salt," he said.
In 2003, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen signed a sub-decree requiring all salt either produced or imported into Cambodia to be iodized.
"In 2000, only slightly more than 10 percent of the families in Cambodia were using iodized salt," Hozumi said. "This situation has dramatically changed, with 70 percent of the Cambodian families consuming iodized salt."
To help reach the goal of elimination of iodine deficiency disorders, the Chiba prefectural government will commit to providing the same quantity of potassium iodate for the next four years.
2 comments:
this is awakening.
nearly 70% of khmers in komport and kep don't have iodized salt, i have been wasting mine away or often refuse iodized salt in my diet.
sometime, we just don't realize how lucky to have thing until we loose it. ***smack myself in the forehead***
Thank you Chiba, but we should not recommend ourself to consume too much salt of any kind.
Salty food increase our water or drink intake and so does other problem like high blood pressure. Do we ever wonder where it would come from? To lower the amount of salt is to comsume food containing Potassium like banana. Did we see why older people always snack on banana? They are watching their salt diet.
I'm 100 % agree about Potassium Iodate. Excellent, excelent balancing salt. Again thank you so much Chiba!!!!!
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