The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) says that iodised salt could have lowered the numbers of children who developed thyroid cancer following the Chernobyl nuclear accident, and called for the supplement to be widely used throughout the affected region.
"For the 4,000 children in question, iodized salt could have made all the difference," Maria Calivis, UNICEF Regional Director for Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States, said while marking the 20th anniversary of the worst-ever nuclear accident.
"Many would have been spared from thyroid cancer," she said, calling for universal salt iodization.
"And amid all the other vast numbers - 400,000 people uprooted from their homes; 5 million still living in contaminated areas; 100,000 still dependent on humanitarian aid - it is too easy to overlook what is small: a drop of iodine costing just a few cents.
"The explosion in the Chernobyl nuclear reactor on 26 April 1986 spread radiation over a wide swathe of land, mainly in Belarus, Ukraine, and the Russian Federation.
The areas affected by Chernobyl were iodine deficient before the disaster, and are still iodine deficient today, according to UNICEF.
Despite many efforts to get legislation passed on universal salt iodization in Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine, the issue is still being debated.
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