ABSTRACT
For the control Iodine Deficiency Disorders (IDD) in Thailand, simple methods for iodination of various food supplements have been introduced by making use of: a) a single bottle of concentrated KIO3 solution which can be prepared by village health volunteers. Iodine may be administered by consumers by dripping the concentrate into drinking water containers belonging to village households, water for school lunch programmes, by spray mixing with salt or by dripping into fish sauce. b) twin bottle for instant detection of iodine in salt and water. This instant test is very useful for on site monitoring and hence surveillance. On a mass scale, iodination of common salt was undertaken by a simple but high capacity spraying machine or by manual mixing on a spraying table. At village level, salt iodination can be undertaken by hand spraying in a plastic basin. Iodination of drinking water can be facilitated either by using a single dropper bottle of conc KIO3 solution, or iodinators. On a limited scale, oral lipiodol has been utilized with success and the synthesis of iodized oil has been attempted. Supporting evidence from field trials confirmed the effectiveness of present methods of control via the iodated salt programme, (1962-1968), iodinated water in village households and school lunch programmes (1986-1988), iodinated water by iodinators (1981-1988), oral iodized oil (1987-1989), and iodinated water and iodated salt (1988-1989). Education transfer, and pitfalls found in the control and evaluation programmes were carefully followed up. Future projections of the control programme have been discussed.