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To the Editor.—
We read with interest the article on allergic contact type dermatitis due to spandex in brassieres by Drs. Porter and Sommer in the January issue. We have also seen a number of patients with this dermatitis and have investigated 11 fully early in 1966. The report of our findings appears in the form of a letter in the British Medical Journal. Our patients were all strongly sensitive to mercaptobenzothiazole which was used in the manufacture of spandex yarn. The distribution of the dermatitis exactly follows that described in the article by Drs. Porter and Sommer. It may be of interest to add that all patients were wearing one particular brand of spandex. This is in contrast to the observations quoted in the article. It is possible that the trade names of polyurethane yarns may differ in the two countries because we have found that the polyurethane with