Powell
Guru
Joined: 27 Nov 2004
{Posts: 2462 }
|
 Posted: Sat 06 Dec 2008 04:31 Post subject: Raising the World’s I.Q. |
 |
|
| Quote: | December 4, 2008
Op-Ed Columnist
NY Times
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/nicholasdkristof/index.html?inline=nyt-per
Raising the World’s I.Q.
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
RAWALPINDI, Pakistan
Travelers to Africa and Asia all have their favorite forms of foreign
aid to “make a difference.” One of mine is a miracle substance that is
cheap and actually makes people smarter.
Unfortunately, it has one appalling side effect. No, it doesn’t make you
sterile, but it is just about the least sexy substance in the world.
Indeed, because it’s so numbingly boring, few people pay attention to it
or invest in it. (Or dare write about it!)
It’s iodized salt.
Almost one-third of the world’s people don’t get enough iodine from food
and water. The result in extreme cases is large goiters that swell their
necks, or other obvious impairments such as dwarfism or cretinism. But
far more common is mental slowness.
When a pregnant woman doesn’t have enough iodine in her body, her child
may suffer irreversible brain damage and could have an I.Q. that is 10
to 15 points lower than it would otherwise be. An educated guess is that
iodine deficiency results in a needless loss of more than 1 billion I.Q.
points around the world.
Development geeks rave about the benefits of adding iodine and other
micronutrients (such as vitamin A, iron, zinc and folic acid) to diets.
The Copenhagen Consensus, which brings together a panel of top global
economists to find the most cost-effective solutions to the world’s
problems, puts micronutrients at the top of the list of foreign aid
spending priorities.
“Probably no other technology,” the World Bank said of micronutrients,
“offers as large an opportunity to improve lives ... at such low cost
and in such a short time.”
Yet the strategy hasn’t been fully put in place, partly because
micronutrients have zero glamour. There are no starlets embracing
iodine. And guess which country has taken the lead in this area by
sponsoring the Micronutrient Initiative? Hint: It’s earnest and dull,
just like micronutrients themselves.
Ta-da — Canada!
(Years ago, New Republic magazine held a contest for the most boring
headline ever. The benchmark was from a Times Op-Ed column — not mine —
that read “Worthwhile Canadian Initiative.” Alas, that’s salt iodization!)
Pakistan is typical of the challenges. Until recently, 6 in 10 Pakistani
schoolchildren were iodine-deficient. Iodine just wasn’t on anyone’s mind.
“I had never heard of iodized salt,” said Haji Sajjawal Khan, a
65-year-old owner of a small salt factory here, near the capital of
Islamabad. Officials from the Micronutrient Initiative and other aid
agencies reached out to factory owners like Mr. Khan and encouraged them
to iodize salt, in part to help make Pakistanis healthier and more
intelligent.
“It will prevent people’s necks from being swollen and will make people
smarter,” Mr. Khan said. So he agreed to add an iodine drip into his
salt grinder.
One of the obstacles is the rumor that iodized salt is actually a
contraceptive, a dastardly plot by outsiders to keep Muslims from having
babies. That conspiracy theory spread partly because the same do-good
advertising agency that marketed iodized salt also marketed condoms.
Yet progress is evident. One of the attractions is that a campaign to
iodize salt costs only 2 cents to 3 cents per person reached per year.
“We are spending very little, but the benefit is enormous,” said Dr.
Khawaja Masuood Ahmed, an official of the Micronutrient Initiative here.
“We’re preventing people from becoming mentally retarded.”
Indeed, The Lancet, the British medical journal, reported last month
that “Iodine deficiency is the most common cause of preventable mental
impairment worldwide.”
Occasionally in my travels I’ve been unnerved by coming across entire
villages, in western China and elsewhere, eerily full of people with
mental and physical handicaps, staggering about, unable to speak
coherently.
I now realize that the cause in some cases was probably iodine deficiency.
Indeed, the problem used to be widespread in the Alps. The word “cretin”
is believed to come from a mountain dialect of French, apparently
because iodine deficiency in the Alps produced so many cretins. The
problem ended when food was brought in from elsewhere and salt was iodized.
There is talk that President-elect Barack Obama may reorganize the
American aid apparatus, perhaps turning it into a cabinet department.
There are many competing good causes — I’m a huge believer in spending
more on education and maternal health, in particular — but there may be
no investment that gets more bang for the buck than micronutrients.
So, yes, salt iodization is boring. But if we can add 1 billion points
to the global I.Q., then let’s lend strong American support — to a
worthwhile Canadian initiative.
I invite you to visit my blog www.nytimes.com/ontheground
http://www.nytimes.com/ontheground, and join me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/kristof
http://www.facebook.com/kristof |
|
|
'
FAQ
Search
Register
Log in
