Comment on The Lancet chronic diseases sereis 3
Wednesday 5th December 2007
"Salt reduction and tobacco control are cheap interventions that would avert millions of chronic disease related deaths" - Dr Perviz Asaria and colleagues.
Commenting on the work of Dr Perviz Asaria from the Kings Fund, London , and colleagues, Professor Graham MacGregor, Chairman of Consensus Action on Salt and Health said:
"This important new research shows that a relatively small reduction in salt intake, in the order of 15%, could save approximately one million lives each year around the world, but bigger reductions in salt intake would save even more lives. The onus is now on the global food industry to save these lives by slowly removing the salt that they currently add to manufactured foods and to reduce salt intake worldwide to less than 5 g/day. Furthermore, the paper clearly shows that compared to other public health interventions, salt reduction is cheap and, importantly, can be achieved in many countries by the food industry without having to require individuals to change their behaviour. The UK food industry is now acting. The rest of the world needs to follow."
Professor MacGregor is available for further comment on: 07946 405617