[3][8] Micronutrient abundance in the environment greatly influences biogeochemical cycles at the microbial level which large ecological communities rely on to survive.
[10][11][12] Secondary and tertiary producers in oceans are therefore also reliant on the presence of sufficient dissolved iron concentrations.
[3] A 1994 report by the World Bank estimated that micronutrient malnutrition costs developing economies at least 5 percent of gross domestic product.
Correcting iodine, vitamin A, and iron deficiencies can improve the population-wide intelligence quotient by 10–15 points, reduce maternal deaths by one-fourth, decrease infant and child mortality by 40 percent, and increase people's work capacity by almost half.
The elimination of these deficiencies will reduce health care and education costs, improve work capacity and productivity, and accelerate equitable economic growth and national development.
Other effects such as improving zinc deficiency, children's growth, cognition, work capacity of adults, or blood indicators are unknown.