Dr. Daniel McCartney:

That is an excellent idea. While we can look at targeted provision to specific groups, we have seen from our discussions today that this is a cross-population issue. In the absence of food fortification, vitamin D provision to people through the pharmacy network would be appropriate but it should be particularly focused on some of the at-risk groups.

To pick up on the Senator's previous point on safety, it is really important for the committee to understand that while we have been talking about food, it has never really been the primary physiological source of vitamin D. Most of the vitamin D humans get is physiologically contributed by sunlight exposure. We therefore find ourselves at an interesting juncture in human evolution because we all decided to move indoors 30 or 40 years ago and vitamin D levels have really dropped because of that. Proposing food, at least natural food, as an intervention here is not really going to be effective. We may get somewhere along the line to adequacy by developing more coherent and effective food fortification policies but we must recognise that in the absence of sunlight exposure it is very difficult to add sufficient amounts to food to make a manifest difference that will get people up to the blood levels required for immunity.