OT: History of iodized salt in America, many Michigan connections!
Interesting story in the Washington Post last week about How the arrival of iodized salt 100 years ago changed America.
Big connection to the state of Michigan as well as the university itself:
In the early 20th century, iodine deficiency was ravaging much of the northern United States. The region was widely known as the “goiter belt,” for the goiters — heavily swollen thyroid glands — that bulged from many residents’ necks.
The issue was more than cosmetic: Iodine deficiency during pregnancy and lactation often led to children with severely diminished IQ and other permanent neurological impairments.
And Michigan was at the epicenter of the crisis.
The soil there didn’t have much iodine. Nor did the freshwater Great Lakes. And so the inhabitants didn’t have much iodine, either.
It was about WWI as well:
...after the outbreak of World War I, Simon Levin, the medical examiner for the draft board in Michigan’s Houghton County, observed that more than 30 percent of registrants had a demonstrably enlarged thyroid, which could disqualify them from military service.
And involved the first Prof of Pediatrics at UM:
These developments came to the attention of David M. Cowie, the first professor of pediatrics at the University of Michigan.
Growing up my folks told me about the reason for iodine in salt, but I didn't know any of this history nor the central role of the great state of Michigan in how it all came about.
It's pretty interesting too how medical professionals who wanted to get the general public to start taking iodized salt were prompted to consider the trade-offs between legislation vs. education to accomplish their aims (obvious relevance to various medical controversies in our day and age).
Thank you. I now have a bit of knowledge about something I knew nothing about. Now I'm tired...can go to sleep now?
Also, Pepper Johnson was born in Detroit and played for the Lions.
This reminds of the 1985 song "I Was a Teenage Goiter" by metro-Detroit band Snake-Out.
There has been a gigantic salt mine in East Lansing since January 8th.
There is also a salt mine under Detroit. Tours were once available.
Cool info.
I've admittedly been using sea salt more and more these days. I should probably get some iodized salt into the mix before my goiter explodes. Or maybe all of the extraneous salt that makes my favorite pretzels so good provides more than enough iodine for one person.
"I should probably get some iodized salt into the mix before my goiter explodes."
Approximately 1/8 teaspoon of kelp seasoning per day will also meet your iodine requirements.
Da'fuck is kelp seasoning?
Just put regular table salt on some potatoes and you should be fine.
Let us also never forget that on January 25, 1945, Grand Rapids became the first city in the world to add fluoride to its public water supply. (I tried to insert an image of the "Michigan Historic Site" plaque from downtown GR commemorating this event but my computer skills are impaired by excess fluoridation.) Michigan: All your added elements belong to us!
Does this mean it's 53 days until football kicks off again?
The thing is, most kids don't use table salt. Was far better to fortify cereal.
Talk about a salty post.
Very cool info. There is also an episode of the podcast “Revisionist History” all about this subject. Worth the listen if you find it interesting at all.
It doesn't get much OTer.
Thank you! I try to help wherever I can. ^_^
Goiter, what goiter?
I barely knew her!
I remember when we moved to Michigan, my sixth-grade teacher gave us a lesson on iodized salt and Michigan's role.
Let's see Netflix try to make a movie out of that.
Another iodine connection in Michigan is that the radioactive isotope of iodine, which is extremely useful for treating thyroid cancer and hyperthyroidism, was discovered by Glenn Seaborg, who was born in Ishpeming before moving to California with his family at the age of 10.
Seaborg also discovered plutonium and nine other transuranium elements, had element 106 named after him (seaborgium), was Chancellor of UC Berkeley and Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and transmuted thousands of atoms of Bismuth-209 into Gold.