Madam, - Dr John Crowe advises haemochromatosis patients to avoid iron-fortified breakfast cereals (Health, October 20th). With iron overload being so common in Ireland, is it not extraordinary that anyone can freely buy iron-containing patent medicines in any chemist?
One company that makes such nostrums has even been advertising on radio and television that its pharmaceutical tonic, containing as much iron as a breakfast cereal, should be taken for tiredness.
One wonders how many incipient sufferers from haemochromatosis have had their iron overload topped up in this way, thus hastening their development of cirrhosis, diabetes and heart ailments.
Why should iron be available without a prescription any more than digitalis or insulin? - Yours, etc.,
DAVID SOWBY,
Dublin 18.