THE PREVENTION OF GOITRE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19119, 10 September 1925, Page 8

THE PREVENTION OF GOITRE.

The public lecture given by Mr. Carrick Robertson on the nature and the incidence of goitre is a valuable illustration of the manner in which the campaign against disease can be assisted by popular education. Much information has been made generally available during repent years regarding the widespread incidence of goitre, and there must be very few people who do not now understand that its causation is a dietary deficiency and not an external infection, or fail to appreciate the danger to succeeding generations of neglect to control it. The public has, moreover, been repeatedly informed that complete protection is assured by the provision of an adequate allowance of iodine, and that the simplest and most effective method of correcting the deficiency in water or food is the restoration of the natural iodine content in table salt. That prophylactic measure was formally commended by the Medical Conference in Auckland last year, and more recently by Professor Hercus, who has done valuable research work on the subject. Mr. Robertson again has emphasised the necessity for legislative action to compel manufacturers to retain the prescribed fraction of iodine in salt sola in the Dominion, and has asked for public advocacy of this regulation. Why should the Department of Health or the Government wait for a public outcry against its negligence before instituting this important reform in the food regulations? No objection has ever been advanced against the advice of the medical profession, which is based upon conclusive experience in other goitrous countries as well as on results obtained in New Zealand, so that there is no reason for presuming any popular opposition to the measure. The department itself has, however, neither endorsed nor criticised the valuvj of iodised salt. In view of the grave extent of the disease revealed by examination of school children, it is surely the duty of the Government to say definitely whether its expert advisers agree with the medical profession's prescription, and if they do to take the necessary action to ensure universal use' of the corrective "safeguard. " !