The most efficient use of US foreign aid dollars: iodizing salt

The New York Times' Nicolas Kristof has a solid video piece on the deficiency of global iodine consumption and the efforts to mitigate the shortage (not something you think about every day, I know). He throws around a lot of numbers in the piece, but one struck me more than the others: iodine deficiency can cost the afflicted individual ten to fifteen IQ points that they would have with proper levels of iodine (*edit: I didn't catch whether this loss occurs at birth or throughout the developmental process). If you add up those individuals who suffer from this deficiency, you have a loss of one billion IQ points worldwide. That's the equivalent of losing the productivity of ten million people that don't need food, make no waste and require no shelter. Given the cheap costs and high returns of iodization, Kristof argues, the United States should funnel as much of its foreign aid money to the cause as possible--there's scarcely a better way to concretely improve the lives of so many. It's hard not to agree with that.