Iron deficiency in adolescents.

Leukaemia Research Fund the condition is unlikely to be appreciably more common than our figures suggest. Statistical analysis is inappropriate for the small number of cases reported here, but, unless the calculation of the population of elderly shoe repairers at risk in our area is a large underestimate, our findings suggest an association between the occupation and the disease. Several other malignant conditions also seem to be more common in workers manufacturing shoes and other leather goods, including cancers of the nose and paranasal sinuses,2 bladder,3 and rectum.4 An increase in perinatal loss has also been reported in women in the leather industry, for which solvents and glues have been implicated.5 Careful assessment of the patient's occupation in new cases of Waldenstrom's macroglobulinaemia coupled with case-control studies and surveys ofthe incidence ofparaproteinaemias in leather workers are needed to ascertain the importance of our findings.