Australian schoolchildren are underperforming (27th in reading, 22nd in science, 18th in math in international tests) and the result may not be failing schools, but underconsumption of dietary iodine, posits ICCIDD regional coordinator Dr. Cres Eastman writing for Fairfax Media's The Border Mail. Dr. Eastman points out that top-scoring Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong are all iodine sufficient because of diets with adequate iodized salt as well as fish and seaweed. Eastman pointed out research in New Zealand showing intellectual performance gains with supplemental iodine.

"... a national survey of schoolchildren in 2003-04 has confirmed the re-emergence of iodine deficiency in Australia after an absence of almost half a century.

"The main cause is that the dairy industry has stopped using iodine to sterilise milk containers, but this has been compounded by the reluctance of consumers to buy iodised salt for home use, and the fact that the local food industry makes only limited use of iodised salt in food manufacturing.

"A spokesman for the Australian Food and Grocery Council said the dairy industry had stopped using iodine - a micronutrient essential for normal thyroid function - as a sterilising agent because of the fluctuations it caused in iodine levels.

"Since 2009, Australian regulations have required iodised salt be used in all bread except organic bread.

"The World Health Organisation has identified iodine deficiency as the ''commonest global cause of preventable loss of intellectual performance''."