Cutting salt 'should be global priority'

The UN must make reducing salt intake a global health priority, say UK scientists. Writing in the British Medical Journal they say a 15% cut in consumption could save 8.5 million lives around the world over the next decade. The report says practical steps to reduce consumption should be drawn up without delay. If voluntary measures do not work, the food industry should be compelled to cut salt levels, it says. The report - by researchers at the Universities of Warwick and Liverpool - says that after cutting tobacco consumption, getting people to eat less salt would be the most cost effective way to improve global health. The researchers say there is a "consistent, direct relation between salt intake and blood pressure". High blood pressure in turn is linked to heart disease, stroke and kidney problems