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Lucky iron fish are fish-shaped cast iron ingots used to provide dietary supplementation of iron to individuals living in poverty affected by iron-deficiency anaemia. The ingots are placed in a pot of boiling water to leach elemental iron into the water and food. They were developed in 2008 by Canadian health workers in Cambodia, and in 2012 a company, The Lucky Iron Fish Project, was formed to develop the iron fish on a larger scale, promote them among rural areas, and distribute them to non-governmental organization partners. ==History== About 60% of pregnant Cambodian women are anemic as a result of dietary iron deficiency, resulting in premature labour and childbirth hemorrhaging. Babies have an increased incidence of brain development problems. Iron deficiency is the "most widespread nutritional disorder" in Cambodia, affecting 44% of the population and resulting in a GDP loss of about $70 billion annually. In May 2008, University of Guelph student Christopher Charles had completed his undergraduate degree in biomedical science. He received a grant from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) to conduct epidemiological health research in Cambodia, a location he chose because he had known of a need for volunteers and assistants for a dietary iron deficiency program. The group with which he worked was based in Praek Russei and collected blood samples from villagers in Kandal Province. Although cast-iron cookware is known to transmit iron to food during cooking, the cost to obtain it is prohibitive for most of the individuals living in poverty in rural Cambodia, who earn less than $1 per day. So too were iron-rich foods such as red meat, legumes and iron supplements. The research group distributed an iron disc to women in the village, asking them to place the disc in their pot while making soup or boiling water. The women were reluctant to use the chunk of iron while cooking, and "almost no one used it". Charles stated that it was a "challenge in social marketing". Several weeks before returning to Canada to start his Master's program, Charles called his doctoral advisor Alastair Summerlee to postpone his hormone research project. Summerlee told him to focus his research on preventing iron deficiency anemia, which eventually "spiralled into a PhD project". 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Lucky iron fish」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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