IN my March
2013 blog “Eat
less salt but make sure it contains iodine!”, I described the problems of addressing iodine–deficiency
diseases in Pakistan and the worrying
rise in iodine deficiency in the UK,
linked to a shift in eating patterns
away from dairy and oily fish, our traditional sources of iodine. Whereas, other developed countries had relied
on introducing a national supply of iodised salt, we had got away without it.
But even countries using iodised salt, now had to watch out, as salt–reduction campaigns to tackle rising cardiovascular
diseases, were allowing iodine-deficiency to reoccur albeit at a low-level (as
compared to the high level of iodine deficiency found in developing countries)
NOW there is further support for re-emerging iodine deficiency
in the UK: this time a study on pregnant
women published in the Lancet. They have identified changes in the IQ of primary-school
children born to mothers with low-level iodine deficiency: IQ goes down 3 points & reading age is
reduced. For more information, read the BBC article Iodine deficiency 'may lower
UK children's IQ and the Lancet
study.
Need I say more? In the March blog, which featured
on Global Health Knowledge Base
and CABI-Handpicked & carefully
sorted , I covered the spectrum of iodine-deficiency diseases which can
occur in children born to mothers with iodine-poor diets, leaving the children with permanent physical
& mental intelligence problems.
Daily it seems, the case is being made to consider introducing iodised
salt into the UK and to advise would-be
pregnant mothers not only to ensure folic acid is in their diet but also
adequate iodine ( BUT not through
seaweed supplements). Pregnant mothers who rely on organic milk should be aware that this contains less iodine than usual and they will need to increase iodine intake to compensate.
WE do indeed “have a new challenge to addressing
iodine deficiency in both developing and developed countries”.
Image from Manataka™
American Indian Council - manataka.org
It was well
publicised in the media last week that we have reached the feared 400 ppm
carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration level in the Earth’s atmosphere. The World
Meteorological Organization (WMO) reported in a press
release last week that the 400 ppm threshold was recorded at several stations of the World
Meteorological Organization’s Global Atmosphere Watch network, and the threshold was reached earlier than the predicted
2015-16. The press release shows some dramatic graphic representations of the
changes in CO2 concentrations from ice core determinations, for the
last 800,000 years and 300 years, and from instrument measurements at Mauna Loa for data since 1957.
Carmen Thönnissen, Programme Manager from the Swiss Agency for Development and Coopertation, recently visited CABI’s Direct2Farm project with her colleagues in Meerut, India. Read Carmen's report on her visit and the impact of mobile technology on Agriculture.
On 23 April 2013, we - from the Swiss Agency for Development and Coopertation (SDC) - had the pleasure to visit one
site of the Direct2Farm projects in Meerut, India. Direct2Farm is a mobile-enabled agriculture
infomediary service aimed at making high quality information readily accessible
to farmers. Accompanied by Mr. Sharbendu Banerjee and Ms Priyanka Anand of the
D2F CABI team in Delhi, we visited the Farmer Call Center that serves more than
30,000 farmers; an Airtel phone company selling stand in a nearby market; met
with famers in their fields; and visited one farming family’s home near Meerut.
Specifically, what’s in it for the people who get involved? How can publishers, government bodies, academic institutions, researchers, and even the general public reap the benefits?
The aim of open access is to improve the communication of knowledge and encourage advancements in research by allowing information to be freely accessible to anyone. At a recent conference held in Oxford, the idea of open access data was discussed with people from all walks of life: publishers, researchers, business entrepreneurs. The general consensus was that openness should be common practice in the academic and publishing world – and that subscriptions, journal payments and other barriers to information should become a thing of the past.
Welcome to a new monthly series called CABI
Author Focus. Each month one of the many talented authors or editors of books
published by CABI will be writing about an element of their research. This
month Kurt Lamour, editor of Phytophthora: A Global Perspective, writes for us on his experiences of this plant-damagng pathogen. As well as
Phytophthora, Kurt co-edited Oomycete Genetics and
Genomics: Diversity, Interactions and Research Tool with Sophien Kamoun.
Potato famine! Starvation and emigration! For
many folks the only Phytophthora they’ll ever hear of, albeit tangentially, is
through tales of the infamous potato blight that occurred in mid-1800 Ireland. I’ve often used the famine as a reference
point to help answer questions concerning what it is I do for a living; although
I’ve learned this conversational strategy can be tricky.
Extreme weather is becoming increasingly more common in the UK in recent years; for example, recent figures from the UK Environmental Agency (EA)
showed that 1 in every 5 days saw flooding in 2012, but 1 in 4 days were in drought. The EA reported that rivers like the Tyne, Ouse and Tone went from
their lowest to their highest flows since records began, in the space
of only four months. These stats indicate the UK must work on dealing
with such extremes. The Flood and Water Mangement Act (2010) and the Environment Agency Catchment Flood Management Plans promote working with natural processes where possible.
April 25th is World Malaria
Day and we’ve had some mixed news this month concerning the GlaxoSmithKlineRTS,S vaccine, reported in New England Journal
of Medicine. 65% of children were protected in the 1st year,
but protection then declined to zero over the next 3 years: which means booster
shots will be essential. Vaccine efficacy also declined faster in children who were more exposed
to malaria than in those who had below-average exposure. Not the grail we hope
for, but we inch our way there.
A fuller discussion of these issues can be found in the April issue of Global Health Knowledge Base, along with the latest research on drug-related aspects of malaria control
I recently attended a conference on the theme of ‘rigour and openness in 21st century science’. The conference focussed on perhaps the biggest buzzword in current science: open access. Specifically, how can open access be embraced without risking the standards and rigour that are so important to scientific enquiry?
Hunger and undernutrition are amongst the most persistent global development challenges. Part of Millennium Development Goal 1 is to ‘Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger’ (UN, 2012). With global numbers of undernourished people static at 870 million for the past 5 years and undernutrition contributing to the deaths of 2.6 million children under five each year (FAO, 2012), at the global level, clearly insufficient progress has been made towards achieving this target. But, at a national level, how are governments doing?
Today is Earth Day, which this year is on the theme 'The Face of climate change'. The Earth Day Network is the organization that coordinates
Earth Day around the world each year and their website www.earthday.org is encouraging people from
around the world to share their stories on the impact of climate change.
