New York City Addresses Salt Intake

New York City launches effort to reduce sodium intake.
Following his high-profile efforts to initiate smoking bans and fight against obesity, the New York Times (1/26, D7, Brody) reports that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (I) is now calling "on restaurant chains and food producers to lower the amount of salt in their products by 25 percent over the next five years." Bloomberg hopes "to reduce the incidence of high blood pressure...strokes and kidney disease." If the plan proves successful, "other cities and states may follow New York's example, if for no other reason than to control rapidly rising public health costs." The health advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest has been urging the FDA for three decades to "regulate salt as a food additive that requires proof of safety for the amounts used."