MORE than two-thirds of Australian women of child-bearing age are deficient in iodine, increasing their risk of having children with learning and other disabilities, a Government dietary study has found.
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The findings showing widespread iodine deficiency in both sexes has revived debate over the Government's plans to make the addition of iodine in bread mandatory from September next year.
The Parliamentary Secretary for Health, Jan McLucas, said the evidence of insufficient iodine intake, particularly in pregnant women, babies, and young children, was of "great concern".
"Mild to moderate iodine deficiency can result in children having learning difficulties and can affect the development of motor skills and hearing. In extreme cases it can result in severe intellectual disability," Senator McLucas said.
The findings are part of a dietary study undertaken by Food Standards Australia New Zealand and show overall about 43 per cent of Australians have an inadequate intake of iodine.
Senator McLucas said the findings confirmed the necessity for the mandatory addition of iodine to bread, which would reduce the incidence of inadequate iodine intake to 5 per cent.
An expert on iodine deficiency, Cresswell Eastman, said the results of the study underlined the need to combat the deficiency, which can trigger hyperactivity in children and thyroid cancer and other problems in adults.
Professor Eastman said the iodine campaign would be more effective if the trace element was placed in all salt because many people would not eat enough bread to get sufficient intake.
Iodine deficiency had been widespread in Australia for some years partly as a result of the decline in use of iodised salt, and was possibly linked to an increased incidence in thyroid cancer and the growth in the average size of the thyroid gland among children, he said.
Professor Eastman, a retired professor of medicine at Sydney University, said there was no proof that such developments were linked to a decline in iodine levels, but experience overseas showed that a link was possible.
A government food scientist, Paul Brent, said while salt iodisation might produce a slightly better coverage for adults, salty diets were not good for the health and analyses had shown using salt could end up delivering risky levels of iodine to children.
It was necessary to strike a balance. "Bread is eaten by enough people to have a real effect," said Dr Brent, the chief scientist at Food Standards Australia New Zealand.
