Rajasthan not upto mark in salt consumption: Study

Rajasthan, top salt producing states of the country, have below the mark figure when it comes to accepted standards of consumption of iodised salt.

New Delhi: Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan, two top salt producing states of the country, have below the mark figure when it comes to accepted standards of consumption of iodised salt, an AIIMS study has found.

"The national level for consumption of iodised salt is 71 per cent. However, the study revealed that over a decade only 41.9 per cent of the rural population of Tamil Nadu and 50.2 per cent of Rajasthan -- two of the three top producers of surplus salt -- consume iodised salt," Head of the Department of Community Medicine, Dr Chandrakant Pandav said.
Conducted in 2010, the study titled `Iodised Salt Coverage Study` was carried out in eight low performing states that also includes Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Odisha, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh.

"A similar study was conducted between the year 1999 and 2006 and at that time to 29.2 per cent of rural population of Tamil Nadu and 30.6 per cent of rural Rajasthan had below the national level consumption of iodised salt."

"As per the study the average consumption of iodised salt across the rural population in eight states has not picked up yet and remains at 47.2 per cent which is way below the universal target level of 90 per cent," Senior programme officer of Indian Coalition for Control of Iodine Deficiency Disorder (ICCIDD), Dr Kapil Yadav said.

PTI

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