iodize
iodise

Ethiopia's government hopes to iodize all salt by year's end.

The human thyroid gland needs a supply of iodine to properly function, So salt manufacturers "iodize" their salt to provide this benefit.

He said China's medical establishment had overcome significant obstacles to win approval for limited programs to iodize salt in the worst-affected areas in the late 1960's.

To iodize salt, potassium iodate is added to salt after it is refined and dried and before it is packed.

For the latter, it is the most common additive used to "iodize" table salt (a public health measure to prevent iodine deficiency in populations which get little seafood).

Unicef and the World Health Organization have spearheaded global efforts to iodize salt as the simplest and most effective way to make up for iodine deficiencies in an estimated one billion people at risk worldwide.

The study, by Peter Adamson, an independent expert who has researched Unicef's annual report for all of its 15 years, says efforts to combat polio and to iodize salt to prevent deficiencies have been particularly successful.

Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan have plenty of rock salt - Ms. Assefa's desk is decorated with great chunks of it - but it is crushed and sold in the markets by small-time traders who have no means to iodize the salt.

Salt producers are often, although not always, supportive of government initiatives to iodise edible salt supplies.