Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region plans to spend 20 million yuan (US$2.6 million) a year on subsidies for its needy population, an effort specifically aimed at combating iodine deficiencies by promoting healthy salt.

About 4.5 million poverty-stricken people in Xinjiang will get the approximately 5 yuan per person subsidy to enable them to buy iodine-enriched salt from the market instead of the low quality, non-iodized product hawked by illegal dealers, said Kuresh Mahsut, vice chairman of the autonomous region.

At least 30 counties, about one third of Xinjiang's total, have not yet eliminated iodine deficiency and related diseases among residents, the local government said.

In Lop County of Hotan Prefecture and Wushi County of Aksu Prefecture, only 20 percent of the residents regularly take iodine-enriched salt, far below the minimum 95 percent requested by the central government.

People with iodine deficiencies are prone to goitre, a swelling of the neck resulting from enlargement of the thyroid gland, which can also lead to learning disabilities.

Iodine deficiencies can also cause miscarriages in pregnant women.

In China, about 600,000 to one million newborns, of the 20 million born every year, suffer from iodine deficiency.

Research by Tianjin Medical University in north China shows the average IQ in iodine deficient areas is 10 to 12 points lower than in other areas.

Despite the fact that the government started an iodized salt program in 1995, about 100 million Chinese still live in areas -- such as Tibet, Xinjiang and Qinghai -- where iodine deficiencies are common.

(Xinhua News Agency May 21, 2007)