Health committee  Just recently I was invited down to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States, where they're restructuring how they deal with their health system and they're looking at the major risks to health in their population and how feasible it is to deal with them.

Health committee  Both the Stroke Network and Blood Pressure Canada collaborated on the World Action on Salt and Health survey, but we went into that enthusiastically, thinking Canada would look very good because we had had two to three years of widespread publicity around the issue, and we thought Canadian companies would respond.

Health committee  We've been a while setting the targets. The ultimate target is to get us down to between the adequate intake level, which is 1,500 milligrams for an adult of average age, but is considerably lower for a younger or an older individual, and the upper limit target is likely going to be around 2,020.

Health committee  It's important to recognize some of the barriers that are faced. Overcoming them will require interactions between Health Canada, individual food companies, and groups of food companies. This is going to require the hiring of trained personnel. There are going to have to be negotiations about the targets and timelines, and this will require technical expertise in the relevant foods.

Health committee  Sure, I can address some but not all of those issues. I think one thing that's very clear is that the working group needs very substantive resources to mount an education campaign for Canadians so that they understand the health risks of high dietary sodium, they understand where the sodium is coming from, and they understand what they can do.

Health committee  I'm Dr. Norm Campbell, the president of Blood Pressure Canada. Blood Pressure Canada is a coalition of 29 national organizations dedicated to the prevention and control of hypertension in Canada. My colleague, Dr. Kevin Willis, is with the Canadian Stroke Network. The Canadian Stroke Network is one of the more important partners of Blood Pressure Canada in the effort to reduce dietary sodium.

Health committee  I didn't write my notes down, if that's what you're asking.