There's a neat article in the NYT about efforts to iodize salt in Kazakhstan. Iodization is cheap and prevents many health problems. The PR battle is the hard part, and the iodizers rose to the challenge:
One female volunteer went to a bus company and rerecorded its“next-stop” announcements interspersed with short plugs for iodizedsalt. “She had a very sexy voice, and men would tell the drivers toplay it again,” Ms. Sivryukova said.
Even the former world chess champion Anatoly Karpov, who is a hero throughout the former Soviet Union for his years as champion, joined the fight. “Eat iodized salt,” he advised schoolchildren in a television appearance, “and you will grow up to be grandmasters like me.”
Mr. Karpov, in particular, handledhostile journalists adeptly, Mr. Zouev said, deflecting inquiries as towhy he did not advocate letting people choose iodized or plain salt bycomparing it to the right to have two taps in every home, one for cleanwater and one for dirty.
