Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The curse of the goitre in Switzerland

lrb.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 282 posts

Re: The curse of the goitre in Switzerland

#111

Post by naremu »

Cockbrand wrote: post #101
kergonath wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty much the same as against fluorine in water in the States: it’s unnatural/a globalist conspiracy/killing our traditional way of life/a plot to subdue the people for . There is no scientifically sound reason against it.

Well, fluoridated water tastes really… well, special , and it almost feels like an indirect subsidy for the water filter industry. Iodine in salt is (to my taste) pretty neutral in comparison. [EDIT: as pointed out in a child comment, the taste actually comes from chlorine, not fluoride.]

Isn't that taste chlorine from the sanitation process?

Either way I actually do assume water filter companies lobby to keep public water as subpar an option as possible, there's certainly no incentive not to.

Re: The curse of the goitre in Switzerland

#112

Post by oynqr »

morsch wrote: post #95
EdwardDiego wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You hate sand, huh.

The anti caking I commonly see in salt is potassium cyanide [ferrocyanide, actually, see below]. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potassium_ferrocyanide

That is not potassium cyanide.

Re: The curse of the goitre in Switzerland

#113

Post by margalabargala »

dougmwne wrote: post #37
pkdpic wrote: post #23

Great read, but I'm wondering why this began in the 1920's? Or was it always an issue for human beings living in Switzerland?

The Victor Hugo quote in the article was from 1839. Biologically speaking, this must have always been an issue. The iodine had washed away from the area long before human settlement. Before modern medicine, it would have been difficult to collect the data and even establish the pattern. People did not travel much in pre-modern times and many of these mountain villages would receive highly educated visitors very infre…

> In 1875, life expectancy in Switzerland was just 38

As is usually the case with numbers like this from the past, this is a mean value, not a median value, that is massively skewed downwards by having upwards of 50% child mortality by age 4.

A typical Swiss person in 1875 who had already turned 30 could be expected to live to be 70.

Here's an article talking about this phenomenon [0]. They term it "adult modal age at death", i.e. at what age do people tend to die once they have survived childhood? In Sweden, in 1875 an adult woman could be expected to live to be 72, and an adult man to be 69. But the average life expectancy in Sweden in 1875 was only 44.

Per the same article, the modal age at death for adults in Switzerland in 1875 was 70 for both men and women.

[0] https://www.cairn-int.info/article-E_POPU_1204_0683--the-mos...

Re: The curse of the goitre in Switzerland

#114

Post by wouldbecouldbe »

EdwardDiego wrote: post #81
wouldbecouldbe wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on the salt, there are few that hardly contain more then dairy, but some salts contain enough to make it make sense. My main issue with normal salt is the anti-caking ingredient needed to not have it stick together, in general not needed with sea salt and a real grinder.

You hate sand, huh.

Most common one used here is Sodium Ferrocyanide : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_ferrocyanide

Also used as a coating in welding among other things. And like other commentor said, a nephew of cyanide.

Now Im sure most of us will be fine, but I prefer not to eat that a few times a day. If you think that makes me foolish, be my guest.

It's also not needed, there are plenty of other sources of Iodine, and sea salt from the grinder is perfectly fine.

Re: The curse of the goitre in Switzerland

#115

Post by jongjong »

ajuc wrote: post #17
bee_rider wrote: post #13

I think, outside Europe, this afflicted lots of places away from the coast, right? Like the middle part of the US. I’ve always wondered if the iodine in the air is part of the allure of the seaside. Coastal areas of course have produced a huge number of successful countries. Most of that must be the trade and logistics advantages. I wonder if getting the iodine right out of the air was another hidden major advantage…

There are health resorts here in Poland where the whole reason is for them to exist in these particular places is because air there has a lot of iodine and other minerals from sea salt. I've been to one in Kołobrzeg as a child because of my asthma. There are also inland health resorts where they build huge salt evaporation walls so that people don't have to drive all the way to the sea to breath sea air- for example…

Sounds similar to many parts of eastern Europe and Russia. People go to health retreats to drink water from specific natural springs that are high in minerals.

Re: The curse of the goitre in Switzerland

#117

Post by hef19898 »

catgary wrote: post #79
Vespasian wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It feels like occasional people have to be reminded of consequences. Otherwise polio, measles and the like are still as dangerous as they ever were and are ready to make their big return if vaccination rates drop too much. I'm certain even small pox is lurking somewhere out there. It seems like, unfortunately, humanities book of learned lessons gets reprinted in pain and suffering once in a while.

He was reminded every day as his home canton still had high rates of gout and children being born deaf/mute.

Since he offered treatment packages, that meant a larger customer base?

Re: The curse of the goitre in Switzerland

#118

Post by bbu »

k__ wrote: post #62
tekla wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am always flabbergasted when people question incredibly effective public health initiatives. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goitre#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iodized_salt#In_public_health_... > Worldwide, iodine deficiency affects two billion people and is the leading preventable cause of intellectual and developmental disabilities.[1][2] According to public health experts, iodisation of salt may be the w…

Can I get some benefits of doubt please? :D I don't question the initiative. The article just read like it was some strange illness that affected Switzers around a certain time.

The country: Switzerland The people: Swiss

The word Switzer isn’t in use since a very long time :)

Re: The curse of the goitre in Switzerland

#119

Post by tonfa »

ch4s3 wrote: post #83
tonfa wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There's probably more plastic in the salt than iodine at this point. Probably not in swiss salt tho (it's usually mountain salt, not sea salt).

I thought it was clear that I meant that in jest. My point was that the amount of iodine is imperceptibly small.

But microplastic in sea salt is a real thing (and might be a bit worrying, personally I now always go for mountain salt, deposited pre-anthropocene era)

Re: The curse of the goitre in Switzerland

#120

Post by dllthomas »

kergonath wrote: post #90
lostlogin wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are the arguments used against iodised salt? Where would they get their iodine?

Pretty much the same as against fluorine in water in the States: it’s unnatural/a globalist conspiracy/killing our traditional way of life/a plot to subdue the people for . There is no scientifically sound reason against it.

You forgot "sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids"
Post reply on HN