Inspired by the thread on fluoridation.
For broad delivery of fluoride, standard practice appears to involve adulterating public water supplies.
OTOH, we have chosen table salt, manufactured by privately owned companies, as the delivery vehicle for iodine.
Why the difference? Moreover, why are salt manufacturers willing to go along with the program (incurring added cost in the production of their product), for no particular benefit to them?
The cost of iodizing salt is minimal and it sells better than non-iodized. The extra sales pay for it.
Flouride in not just in water – manufacturers put it in toothpaste and mouthwash. The problem is that it’s hit or miss. Cavities are a public health issue – a far more serious one that goiter – so flouride is a cheap and easy way to reduce peoples’ dental costs.
And it’s working: back in the 50s, Crest used to run ads with kids saying, “Look mom, one cavity!*” and have their mother praising them for a good checkup.
*They later changed this to “no cavities”
Excess salt is a recognized public health problem. We do not have a similar problem with people overindulging in water.
Somewhat similar to iodized salt is flour fortified with folic acid. Folic acid in the diet has been shown to reduce birth defects, so fortified flour is a fairly simple way to get folic acid to people to reduce birth defects.
Interesting use of “adulterate”.
I have never heard that you could “adulterate” something with something more expensive and which makes the original product more valuable.
Do you also “adulterate” your coffee with cream and sugar?
Even when adding water to whisky I would not use “adulterate” unless it is done beforehand with the purpose of cheating the customer. I have never heard a customer ask the waiter to “please adulterate my whisky with water”.
:smack:
Thanks for pointing that out. I’m usually a stickler for careful use of language; looks like I really dropped the ball on this one. I had always understood “adulterate” to not have such specific connotations, i.e. I figured it just meant adding another ingredient in small amounts, without reference to the quality/safety/utility of the additive.
FTR, I am in favor of fluoridated water and iodized salt. Or vice versa - whatever works well to cram fluoride and iodine into people’s bodies without making them think too hard about it. 
Here in Mexico, at least in the Yucatan, salt is the delivery vehicle for fluoride.
While the dictionary does not mention it I think it is always done with the purpose of cheating. Something which is clearly labeled and described as it is I would not call adulterated. Medicinal drugs often carry excipient “filler” but I would not call it adulteration.
Illegal drugs are adulterated for street sale and I assume buyers know it but the “adulteration” is because it is meant to pass as the pure stuff. And it not need be in small amount. You can have more adulterating substance than original substance and it is still adulteration if done for the purpose of misleading the customer.
There’s an old joke: A food inspector shows up at a factory where they can quail meat and tells them he has detected the quail meat is being adulterated with [cheap] whale meat. The plant owner admits “well, yes, a little”. The inspector says “Not a little, a lot”. The plant owner then admits “well, OK, 50%” and the inspector says “No, much more than that”. The plant owner then becomes adamant: “NO, I swear, it’s only 50%: One whale for every quail!”
I think it’s that way in most of Europe too; they fluoridate their salt but not their water.
Actually with white flour it was the other way around. Bleached flour removed vital nutrients from bread and there was an increase in diseases from white bread. The makers of white breads had to put the nutrients back in that they removed.
From: http://www.drmirkin.com/public/ezine032413.html
Removing the germ of whole grains to make white flour removed nine vitamins and virtually all the minerals and phytochemicals.
Removing the “B” vitamins, thiamin, niacin and riboflavin, and folic acid in the germ caused the great epidemic of beriberi and pellagra, that killed more people in North America than anything else from 1700 and 1900.
PELLAGRA: Lack of niacin caused Pellagra which made people crazy, and gave them diarrhea and a skin rash before they died of heart failure.
BERIBERI comes from lack of thiamin which causes people to swell like balloons, lose feeling in their arms and legs and die of heart failure.
LACK OF RIBOFLAVIN: Isolated riboflavin deficiency has never been reported. It is virtually always associated with lack of other nutrients such as vitamin C, vitamin D, niacin, and thiamin. It is seen most frequently in chronic alcoholism or intractable diarrhea. Symptoms of riboflavin deficiency include swelling and fissuring of the lips, ulceration and cracking of the angles of the mouth, oily, scaly skin rashes on the genitals and between the nose and lips, swelling of the tongue, red, itchy eyes, numbness of hands, and decreased sensitivity to touch, temperature or vibration.
LACK OF FOLIC ACID: Lack of folic acid causes heart attacks and, in pregnant women, causes their babies to suffer spina bifida in which their spines are abnormal.
In the 1930′s the U. S. government made it illegal to sell white flour unless the miller adds back thiamin, niacin and riboflavin. This brought an end to the epidemics of beriberi and pellagra. Heart attack rates kept rising in the United States until 1994, when the government made it illegal to sell flour without adding back folic acid. Since then, the rate of heart attacks has declined dramatically.
GRAHAM CRACKERS: Graham’s solution for the white bread problem was to create a cracker that was named after him. It was made with coarsely ground whole wheat and molasses which was, baked as soon as the wheat was ground so it wouldn’t turn rancid.