ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the danger of iodine excess for people in the downstream area of Yellow River in Shandong Province by describing the distribution of iodine excess water and the gorer of children Methods Water samples were collected from 5 villages of every town of Yuncheng,Jiaxiang and Dongchangfu Counties to determine the iodine of the water using arsenic cerium oxidation reduction method.In the 5 towns having water iodine in the range of 150～300μg/L,200 students aged from 8～10 years received the paJpation of thyroid,half of them were also measured of urinary iodine with As3+-Ce4+ catalytic spectrophotometry using ammonium persulfate digestion method,and 50 of the 100 students further underwent thyroid B-ultrasound.Results Three counties all have high iodine towns.The medium of urinary iodine of 30 town8 in 56 towns was higher than 150μg/L Urinary iodine and sign detection were performed in 13 towns,where water iodine was between 150～ 300μg/L;the medium ofurinary iodine of 11 towns were higherthan 400μg/L,and 3 of the 11 towns were higher than 800μg/L.In all 13 towns,the goiter rate of the students aged 8 to 10 years exceeded 5%by palpation in 11 towns:exceeded 5% by B-ultrasound method in 9 towns.Conclusions There are areas of iodine excess in drinking water and iodine-excess endemic goiter prevails in downstream area of the Yellow River in Shandong Province.It indicates that iodine excess in drinking water has done severe harm in these areas. Active management should be taken to control this endemic disease.