1.   American scientists say that iodine deficiency, while stunting brain development, also appears to boost sperm counts.

2.   And, as Utiger stresses, in the case of developing fetuses and infants, iodine deficiency can cause intellectual retardation and permanent neurological and developmental damage.

3.   Cretinism is caused either by dietary iodine deficiency or by malfunction or absence of the thyroid gland, which processes iodine into the thyroid hormone.

4.   Dobson argued that in genetic terms, Neanderthals may have been anatomically modern humans who were pathologically altered by the effects of iodine deficiency.

5.   Even where goiter and cretinism are not apparent, iodine deficiency can cause chronic mental and physical fatigue and lesser degrees of mental impairment.

6.   For centuries iodine deficiency has been known to cause goiter, a swelling of the thyroid gland, and in extreme cases the deformities and severe retardation of cretinism.

7.   In fact, according to the ICCIDD, iodine deficiency is the single biggest cause of preventable mental retardation and brain damage in the world.

8.   In children and adults, iodine deficiency can slow the ability to process information.

9.   Iodine deficiency is the leading preventable cause of mental retardation.

10.   Less progress has been made against pneumonia and diarrheal disease, but damage from iodine deficiency, measles and polio has been substantially reduced.