Pouring salt on the wound this World Hypertension Day

In 2006 the UK government negotiated with industry voluntary targets for the concentration of salt in processed foods. Sector-wide salt reduction has been achieved and average population salt consumption has come down by 10 per cent. This has already prevented thousands of premature deaths and many more non-fatal strokes and heart attacks.

The really good news is that this can come cheap. A national salt reduction program for Australia could be delivered for about 1 per cent of the annual cost of the existing clinical hypertension program. Furthermore, getting industry to take salt out of foods could produce the same health benefits as the clinical hypertension program within just a few years of implementation.

The real question is whether government will take on industry. Clinical hypertension control programs are just one more costly clinical thumb in a dyke holding back a flood of lifestyle diseases.

Salt reduction programs were recently highlighted as having greater potential for disease prevention than smoking cessation programs. The control of blood pressure through salt reduction represents probably the single best opportunity for the prevention of death and disability in Australia. A few simple, easily implemented measures could avert thousands of deaths, heart attacks and strokes within just a few years.