This is a story of scientific advance and unexpected consequences - and actions we really ought to take now. Before the first phases of industrialised farming in the early 1800s, many people in the UK suffered from a variety of dietary deficiencies. The most important lack was of iodine - although this was not understood at the time, the element itself not being discovered until 1811. Although we need only trace amounts of iodine that are much less than one thousandth of a gram per day, the lack led to visible symptoms and severe mental retardation - the "village idiot" was not a rarity, but all too common.
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