Unicef fears Indonesia will fail to meet target of iodized salt campaign

Urip Hudiono, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Only 68 percent of Indonesia's population of 215 million are consuming iodized salt, raising fears that the country will fail to reach its target in the Universal Salt Iodization (USI) campaign.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), one of the proponents of the global drive, expressed concerns on Thursday that the number of iodine deficiency disorder (IDD) cases would worsen in the world's fourth most populous country.

"This is not just a matter of putting salt in our food, but also of saving our children, even unborn ones," said UNICEF country representative Steven Allen.

UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO) had set 2005 as the target for global eradication of IDD.

One of the main campaigns for IDD eradication is to increase the world population's consumption of iodized salt to 90 percent by 2005.

By 2002, Indonesia had only managed to achieve a 68.5 percent populational consumption of iodized salt, from 65.18 percent in 1998.

Iodine is needed by the human body for producing the thyroid hormone, the lack of which is known to cause the enlargement of the gland, a condition known as goiter, but more dangerously, a lack of iodine affects brain cell development.

Iodine deficiency among pregnant women, infants and children can result in mental retardation, low IQ and psychomotor disorders. These factors could eventually affect a nation's human resources index.

According to UNICEF, poor law enforcement was the main cause of the country's low iodized salt consumption.

Presidential Decree No. 69/1994 requires all salt for human consumption to be iodized in adherence with the national standard, while Ministry of Industry and Trade Decree No. 77/1995 sets the national standard at 30 parts per million iodine in the form of potassium iodate in all table salts.

Several districts, such as Indramayu and Cirebon in West Java, and Jeneponto in South Sulawesi, have their own standards.

Director general for public health Azrul Anwar at the Ministry of Health admitted that it was difficult for Indonesia to achieve its iodized salt consumption target.

"We must not despair. It requires concerted efforts to achieve the 90 percent target in the next two years," Azrul was quoted by Antara as saying.

He said around 70 million Indonesians were vulnerable to IDD, but did not go into details.

Poor law enforcement, however, might not be the only problem Indonesia faces in promoting iodized salt consumption.

Iodized salt only accounts for 26 percent of the annual production of 1,200,000 million tons of salt.

Meanwhile, demand for iodized salt this year is estimated to reach 700,000 million tons, which means a majority of the population will be consuming non-iodized salt.

Ironically, salt-producing regions such as East Java, Central Java, West Java and South Sulawesi were among those provinces with low iodized salt consumption, while regions that do not produce salt, such as North Sulawesi, West Sumatra, Riau, Jambi, Bengkulu, and Central, South and East Kalimantan, were listed as having a high rate of iodized salt consumption.