The study found scant evidence of a relationship, and even that disappeared when the four primitive populations were excluded and the remaining 48 acculturated societies were analyzed. It was intended to guide public health nutrition policy and, in fact, was cited as support for having the U.S. encourage universal sodium reduction. But the numbers didn't make sense to the Salt Institute, representing the salt industry.
Salt is the primary source of dietary sodium.
So the Institute asked the authors if they could have an independent expert statistical analysis done of the Intersalt data. The authors refused. The Salt Institute asked that the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, the HHS unit that funded the study, to obtain the data from the Intersalt researchers. They claimed that they had structured their financial arrangement so that they were unable to obtain the raw data themselves. The Institute then requested that the HHS Office of Research Integrity examine the situation to determine if the authors had fairly reported their findings.