Iodine deficiency Iodine deficiency Iodine deficiency is a lack of the trace element iodine, an essential nutrient in the diet. It may result in a goiter, sometimes as an endemic goiter as well as cretinism due to untreated congenital hypothyroidism, which results in developmental delays and other health problems. Iodine deficiency is an important public health issue as it is a preventable cause of intellectual disability. Iodine is an essential dietary mineral; the thyroid hormones thyroxine and triiodothyronine contain iodine. In areas where there is little iodine in the diet, typically remote inland areas where no marine foods are eaten, iodine deficiency
Isotopes of iodine other form of direct radiation). The protective effect of KI lasts approximately 24 hours, so must be dosed daily until a risk of significant exposure to radioiodines from fission products no longer exists. Iodine-131 (the most common radioiodine contaminant in fallout) also decays relatively rapidly with a half-life of eight days, so that 99.95% of the original radioiodine has vanished after three months. Isotopes of iodine There are 37 known isotopes of iodine (I) from I to I; all undergo radioactive decay except I, which is stable. Iodine is thus a monoisotopic element. Its longest-lived radioactive isotope, I, has a