The Present Status of the Use of Iodides in the Minneapolis Water Supply

Abstract

The history of the art of water purification is a story of attempts to solve the difficulties incident to the production of a satisfactory water supply. Among the accomplishments are the removal of disease-producing organisms, turbidity, odors and tastes, the reduction of color, hardness, carbon dioxide, iron and manganese. About five years ago, however, our attention was called to a new problem, namely that many waters are deficient in iodides and that this is the cause of simple or endemic goiter. At the 1923 Convention of the Association, Beekman С Little, then Superintendent of the Bureau of Water of Rochester, N. Y., made the startling announcement that sodium iodide was being added to their municipal water supply for the prevention of simple goiter. Some of us had been observing in a rather detached way the accumulating evidence pointing toward a definite connection between iodide deficiency in foods and water and the prevalence of simple goiter, but here was an actual case of active cooperation between the Water and the Health Bureaus of a municipality to make use of this fact for the purpose of furnishing to its citizens a more satisfactory water supply. Simple goiter has been known for many centuries. Thc Hindu literature of 2000 B.C. gives religious formulae for combating it, and the Chinese, as early as 1600 B.C. recorded methods for its treatment, using burnt sponges and seaweed ashes mixed in food. It was also well known to the ancient Greeks and Romans. The ravages of this disease have long been recognized, but it has not been until recently that definite hopes for its ultimate eradication have been possible. In this discussion we are interested only in the public health problem of the prevention of simple goiter. It is as definite a public health problem as is the prevention of typhoid fever or tuberculosis.