The most current IQ survey in 2011 in Thailand reported a serious
problem of dropping trend to just the average of 98.59 point (99.91 for girl
student and 97.69 for boy students) which is found to be less than normal
average of 100. Among those, 29.1 percent are higher than international average
(more than or equal to 110), 42.5 percent are within international average
(90-109), and 30.4 percent are lower than international average. Not
surprising, the most richest region such as Bangkok and Central area achieve
the highest points of more than international average while the northeastern
provinces, the poorest region, achieve the lowest point.
Problem of Iodine deficiency was blamed the major culprit as its
still remained a major problem in Thailand. Iodine deficiency status can
be done by measuring the surveillance for urinary iodine concentration
of pregnant women. If comparing between the provincial data of
the proportion of iodine deficiency of the pregnant women in Thailand and IQ
score. The correlation is found to be "negative" reconfirming poor
iodine status in early pregnant women is associated with impaired mental
and physical development of fetuses. The evidence is clear in the remote inland
provinces in the northeast where marine foods are difficult and expensive to be
found.
In order to reduce the problem of the Iodine deficiency in
children and pregnant women in Thailand, Implemented in December 2010, The Thai
Food and Drug Administration (FDA), under the Ministry of Public Health, has
announced the revision of the standard of edible salt, including cooking salt,
fish sauce, crispy snacks, and instant noodle sold in the market. In
the proposed revised Notification of the Ministry of Public Health, the edible
salt must contain Iodine at the quantity of not less than 30 mg and not exceed
100 mg per 1 kg of the edible salt. In addition, the wording of “Iodized Edible
Salt” has to be displayed in adjacent to the name of food. Both local producers
and importers of table salt are required to abide by the standards set in this
revised notification. Production or factory address of those local producers and
importers must also be presented.
The IDD Program in
Thailand has nevertheless received the highest attention as a result of keen
interest and guidance from HM The King and HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn.
it is vital that stakeholders, including government bodies (Ministry of Public
Health, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Education, etc.), salt
producers, and food processors) take an active role as equal partners.
The salt iodization is recommended as method of choice favored by
the Thai government. However, its effectiveness is still weak in some
remote areas (village level and sub-district level), especially in term of Iodine fortification
and iodine salt distribution. Research study by Pongpaew,
et.al. (2002) found that, although most of the villagers (63.8-81.7 percent)
were aware of the benefits of iodinated salt, only 48.8-60 percent of them
actually used the fortified salt. Although large companies
were able to produce good quality iodized salt, small cottage industry
producers were able only to supply low quality iodized salt at a rather high
price.
The main constraint was an inadequate and irregular supply of
iodized salt to the village food store. The research confirms that the
middleman seller in salt market preferred to sell “rock salt” than the marine
salt because more profit could be made from it.
Another problem with fortified salt in the project area was that,
instead of using salt, the villagers use fish sauce constantly in their
cooking. Fish sauce is produced through the fermentation of fish. In the
process salt is added to the fish left to ferment for some time. In areas by
the sea, marine salt is used for this process and consequently the fish sauce
contains more iodine. In the northeastern area when the iodine deficiency
was highly presented, however, sometimes more rock salt is used to produce fish
sauce. Local producers only dissolve rock salt in water and add artificial
color to make it look like real fish sauce. As a consequence, the iodine content
of fish sauce in the northeast area was lower than other area (pongpaew,
et.al., 2002) The research also support the use of iodized fish sauce to be an
effective factor for the efficiency of a IDD control program in Thailand,
especially in north and northeast region because local population mostly use
fish sauce instead of salt in their cooking.
Support and supervision from the central organizations was
however inadequate because, among other reasons, of limitation of manpower was
limited. Nevertheless, Thailand has made impressive progress
towards increasing the production of iodized salt. However, the remaining gap
can be monitored.