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)