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BALANGA City, Bataan: The Provincial Health Office of
Bataan on Friday launched “Tubig Talino” to address the common
problem of Iodine Deficiency Disorders or IDD with public
pre-elementary and primary school children as its first
beneficiaries.
Dr. Rosanna Buccahan, assistant
health officer, said that IDD is the single most common cause of
brain damage and mental retardation, reduced intelligence quotient,
goiter and hypothyroidism. “Iodine-deficient women frequently
suffer abortions and still-births,” she said.
The health official said Bataan
is the first province in the government sector and the fifth in the
country to adopt “Tubig Talino.” The four others belong to the
private sector coming from Marikina (Metro Manila), Calamba
(Laguna), Iloilo and Davao.
“The drinking water will be
incorporated to the provincial government’s free feeding program
for malnourished elementary school children,” Buccahan said.
Initial recipients are 50 children for one barangay each in 11 towns
and one city.
The next target will be the
general public but it will be for sale in still undetermined but
minimal price.
“Tubig Talino” is bottled
drinking water fortified with iodine formulated by the Food and
Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI) of the Department of Science and
Technology.
The FNRI briefed reporters on the
importance of iodine in the food intake.
Marcela Saises, FNRI Senior
Science Research Specialist, said the fortified drinking water is
one way of solving the micronutrient malnutrition problem, which is
IDD.
“Our 2003 survey showed that
there was severe to moderate iodine deficiencies that existed among
lactating mothers,” she said.
Esmeralda Sales, medical
technologist, explained that the laboratory and equipment processing
water fortified with iodine are well kept in one of the several
buildings of the provincial health office in Balanga City.
--Ernie B. Esconde
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