Survey of iodine nutrition status among employees of Taishan nuclear power station in Taishan, Guangdong

Abstract

Objective To understand the situation of iodine of Taishan nuclear power station employees, and assess the relationships between iodine nutrition and thyroid nodule of Taishan nuclear power station in Taishan, Guangdong. Methods Totally 300 people were selected from of Taishan nuclear power station through stratified-random sampling method, random urine samples were collected and urinary iodine level was tested in 2014. According to 20 to 29 years old, 30 to 39 years old, 40 to 59 years old, 3 age groups were sampled, and each age group was 100 people. Drinking water and edible salt samples of the of nuclear power station were collected and iodine level was tested. Daily dietary intake of the staff was investigated, and daily iodine intake was calculated. Result of thyroid B ultrasonic of the employees (1 091) were studied, and detection rate of thyroid nodule was calculated. Results Totally 308 urine samples were tested, and the median urinary iodine was 193 μg/L. The difference of urinary iodine between 20-year-old group (201 μg/L) and 30-year-old group (165 μg/L) was statistically significant (P < 0.05). A total of 9 iodized salt samples were collected, with an average iodine value of (24.4 ± 0.5) mg/kg. A total of 9 water samples were collected, the median of water iodine was 20.5 μg/L in 3 centralized water supply samples. The daily iodine intake per capita of the staff was 274.0 μg/d, the highest contribution among all the varieties of food was iodized salt, the second was seafood, which were 45.26 percent and 41.86 percent, respectively. A total of 99 thyroid nodules and suspicious nodules were detected in 1 091, and the prevalence was 9.07 percent (99/1 091). The prevalence of people aged 40-59 [15.6% (22/141)] was significantly higher than those of people aged 20 to 29 [8.1% (51/633)] and aged 30 to 39 [8.2% (26/317)], and the differences were statistically significant (P < 0.05). Conclusions The iodine nutrition of Taishan nuclear power station employees is appropriate as a whole. The detection rate of thyroid nodules is higher in people aged 40 to 59. Key words: Iodine; Thyroid; B ultrasonic; Thyroid nodule