Pregnant women are putting the mental development of their children at risk by failing to take sufficient amounts of iodine, according to a recent study by British scientists.
Ananova.com reports that a team of scientists at the University of Dundee found that 40 per cent of pregnant women had less than half the recommended intake of iodine. The findings contradict positive reports earlier in the year that iodine deficiency is on the way out.
Professor Robert Hume, a member of the University's Tayside Institute of Child Health, said that the study highlighted a serious problem in the UK. He is now urging the British government to make it compulsory for manufacturers to add iodine to salt or to multivitamins taken by women during pregnancy.
"Ours is the first study to have been carried out in the UK and the results are worrying," Hume told Ananova. "The science is very clear about the effects of iodine deficiency for unborn babies - irreversible mental retardation to different degrees."
He added that although in most cases the deficiency was not very severe, the effects were still serious.
Studies of Spanish and Italian schoolchildren have shown that children who were mildly or moderately deficient in iodine have a lower intelligence and were also less mentally developed than children of the same age whose diets have include enough iodine.
"If the mother, due to insufficient iodine, does not supply enough thyroid hormones at a critical period, the development of the foetal brain is affected and mental potential is significantly curbed. Severe deprivation is associated with cretinism - when babies are mentally retarded and may also be deaf and mute," said Hume.
He stressed that remedying the situation would not be difficult : "Adding tiny amounts of iodine to the diet takes total care of the problem. In the UK it has never been compulsory for manufacturers to add iodine to salt."
Professor Hume is lobbying MPs to change the law on iodising salt and he plans to take his case to the European Parliament in November.