OBJECTIVES Data from a hospital based case-control study were analysed to assess the relation between maternal occupation in the leather industry and several groups of congenital defects (nervous system, cardiac defects of closure, oral cleft, epispadia or hypospadia, and multiple anomalies). METHODS Cases and controls were selected from eight public hospitals in Comunidad Valenciana, Spain, ...

Leather is derived from the hides of skins of animals. It is a remarkably durable, strong and versatile material, which in its various forms has been made into objects ranging from African shields and drums to European saddles and kinky underwear. From as early as 2700 BC until fairly recently leather was also in the forefront of information technology with its use (as skins, vellum and parchme...

Proteases are catabolic enzymes that catalyze the complete hydrolysis of protein. They constitute one of the most important groups of industrial enzymes, accounting for nearly 60% of the total worldwide enzyme sale1. Keratinolytic protease is a specific protease that has immense commercial importance. It acts on keratin of the hides thus can be used in dehairing2. This enzyme along with proteas...

Profile Pakistan's leather industry is one of the major foreign exchange earners for the country. About 90% of its products are exported in finished form. During 1996-97, the production of leather was about 14.3 million m and export earning amounted to US$ 642 million. There are some 600 tanneries in the formal sector and an equally large number of tanneries in the informal sector. These are co...

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 ...

A recent proposal that leatherworkers might face a reproductive hazard was tested using data from a large survey in Montreal of occupational factors in pregnancy. The outcome ofpregnancy in almost 400 women employed in the manufacture of leather products, some 6000 employed in other types of manufacture, and nearly 50 000 employed but not in manufacture were compared. There was little differenc...

Basic chromium sulphate is the most versatile and common tanning agent in the leather industry. Under certain circumstances, the oxidation of the trivalent chromium salts into the hexavalent compounds, which are used in leather manufacture, is a crucial issue. In this study, different proportions of basic chromium sulphate were used in tanning and re-tanning processes according to a commonly us...

Chitosan is a biopolymer that is being increasingly used in distinct areas such as pharmaceutical, biomedical, cosmetics, food industry and agriculture. Among the interesting biological activities that have been ascribed to chitosan, the antimicrobial activity is probably the one that generates the higher number of applications. Considering that feet present favorable conditions for microorgani...