Sharadha Narayanan; Express News Service: 19 Oct 2010
CHENNAI: The Iodine Deficiency Disorder Cell in the State is nearly defunct now, for want of dedicated staff and Central government funds.
The cell established in 1994 to test the quantity of iodine in salt (for iodine consumption by the people) and in urine (for iodine absorption of the people), is not functioning at present, despite a shocking report of a survey conducted in 2001 in the State which said all 100 urine samples tested in that year were found to have insufficient iodine (less than 25 microgram).
According to the National Family Health Survey III, Tamil Nadu ranked the sixth lowest State in the country, in terms of consumption of iodised salt.
According to the 2005-06 survey, only 41 per cent people of the state consumed adequately iodised salt, 10 per cent lower than the national average.
According to the Revised Policy Guidelines of the Centrally-sponsored National Iodine Deficiency Disorders Control Programme, 25 urine samples have to be collected from every district every month for analysis and sent to the state IDD monitoring lab. But urine samples were not tested at all from 2009, due to the lack of staff, even though they had equipments to do the testing .
Speaking to Express, RT Porkai Pandiyan, director of Preventive Health and Public Medicine, said funds had not been received from the Central government for the last three years (from 2008-09), and a written communication regarding the same has been made to the Nutrition Advisor of Ministry of Health, Government of India. “We are also looking at means to revive the lab for testing urine samples,” he said.
Yet, random samples were being tested by food inspectors and multi level health workers using spot test kits. Between 2006 and 2009, the percentage of salt found iodine deficient (less than 15 ppm) in the State hovered between 28 per cent and 31 per cent, based on information received through an RTI petition. In 2009, it was back to 28.69 per cent.
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