engleski

Analysis of the 1997-98 Salt Iodization Levels in Croatia

Iodine goiter deficiency is one of the major public health problems in Croatia and some other countries. In this country important studies were done in the period 1951-61, when in some places as many as up to 85% of the medically examined schoolchildren had goiter. At the time, the introduction in kitchen salt of iodine goiter prophylaxis by the addition of 10 mgKI/kg salt proved highly instrumental in reducing goiter. Neverthless, the 1986-87 studies showed that goiter was still a current national problem. The then national mean of 25% among school children indicated that the problem had obviously been slightly neglected. Next, the 1995-96 epidemiological goiter surveys finding that for this reason the prescribed concentration of 10 mg KI/kg salt was too low compared with the limits prescribed by the developed countries has hastened a revision of salt iodization criteria. Such endeavors have resulted in new regulations requiring the addition of 25 mg KI/kg and in the monitporing of the method of implementation of the new regulation. This was accomplished by systematic assays of the salt for human diet in 1997 and in 1998, whose results are shown below.

salt; iodization; monitoring

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