Deborah Harrell wrote:
> While the numbers are smaller, the result of folate
> supplementation is reduction of spina bifida and other
> neural tube defects (SB frequently results in
> paralysis). And the lack of iodine is potentially
> devastating, with mental retardation of varying
> degrees the result of prenatal/infantile deficiency.
> [I believe that "cretinism" was the former term for
> these unfortunate children; don't have the time right
> now but ought to look that up.]
My handy dictionary tells me that cretinism is caused by a deficiency of
thyroid hormone during prenatal development. (Not sure just how this
ties in with iodine, and my uncle is no longer alive to explain it to
me....)
> But if you want big numbers of lives saved or kept
> 'intact', look at sewage/water treatment and
> vaccination programs -- these latter _were not_
> entirely voluntary as schools required certain
> vaccinations for attendance. (Aside: I think the
> 50-year anniversary of the Salk polio vaccine was last
> month.) That *is* state nannyism, as indeed most
> public health programs are, and millions have been
> saved thereby.
And they're backing off on that in Texas now, which I find alarming. A
certain minimum percentage of the population has to be immunized against
something to keep it from spreading very far if one of the unimmunized
gets it, and I think we should reserve those "unimmunized" slots for
people who shouldn't have the vaccine for existing health reasons.
(Then again, I took one of those slots on one vaccine, and my sister
took another, and my mother's public health doctor uncle took her
greatly to task on not having gotten my sister immunized by separating
us for the amount of time it would have been potentially unsafe for me
to be with her after the immunization.)
Julia
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