Simple Public Health Intervention Against Iron Deficiency, First
Conceived By Epidemiologist, Wins Prize At Cannes Festival
“Lucky Iron Fish”
Organization Created To Tackle Anemia Worldwide
A simple public health intervention to fight iron
deficiency anemia has won a prestigious Cannes Lion Grand Prix for
product design at the Cannes Lions International Festival of
Creativity. Invented and first tested by epidemiologist Christopher
Charles while a doctoral student working in Cambodia in 2008, the
intervention consists of a piece of iron which can be added to
cooking pots so that it may leach iron into the food and decrease iron
deficiency anemia.
Origins
Cast iron pots to
fight iron deficiency anemia had been tried in randomized controlled
trials in other countries, according to an early article by Charles.
The pots did work to leach iron into food, however, compliance was not
optimal. Since aluminum pots were in use in Cambodia, the cast iron
pots were not an option. Charles thought of using a small iron ingot
instead that could be placed in aluminum pots commonly used for
cooking in Cambodia.
To promote compliance the original iron ingot was
shaped in the form of a local fish and named “Happy Fish” because that
fish is a symbol of luck in the local Cambodian culture.
First Trial
In a community trial
carried out in 2008-09 and reported in 2010 in the European Journal of
Public Health, Charles and colleagues showed blood iron levels were
higher in women at 3 months, but not at a longer 6 month interval. The
results were judged promising enough to call for more research
The
fish design has now gone through multiple iterations from the original
concept and renamed “Lucky Iron Fish”. Its current form is one created
by Gavin Armstrong , CEO of the newly created Lucky Iron Fish
organization which describes itself as a socially-minded business. The
most recent version of the fish is one designed in 2014 and the
winning one entered in the Cannes Festival.
Impact
According to the Lucky Iron Fish website, subsequent
work described in Charles’ PhD thesis online has shown that users of
the iron fish for cooking are feeling better by 6 months and have a
greater capacity to work. The group also reports that by 9 months a
dramatic and sustained increase in circulating levels of iron in the
blood and iron stores in the body can be found. The incidence of iron
deficiency had decreased by half in test areas, according to Lucky
Iron Fish.
Going Big
Lucky Iron Fish has a
management team and a 5 person Board of Directors, including Charles
who is now a medical student. It has been set up to tackle iron
deficiency anemia in Cambodia which has 6 million persons affected.
Eventually the organization’s goal is to tackle the worldwide anemia
problem estimated to affect some 3.5 billion persons.
A larger I year
clinical trial in collaboration with the Danish Red Cross and the
University of British Columbia is underway to provide more evidence
about the efficacy of this intervention. The organization’s goal is to
reach 1 million families in 5 years and make iron deficiency anemia a
thing of the past.
Other Awards
Lucky Iron Fish has
earned the Commitment to Action Award from the Clinton Global
Initiative University and it was named 1 of 5 innovations that will
change the world by MacLean’s magazine. It also won several other
silver or gold awards at Cannes in other categories other than product
design such as marketing.
To learn more about
Lucky Iron Fish, visit
luckyironfish.com
If you are iron deficient or want to help support the mission of
Lucky Iron Fish, consider buying a fish for yourself ($25) and the
organization will give one to a family in need. Visit:
https://tinyurl.com/pbn4k2s ■
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