customers and US$10 billion in revenue. In the early 1990s, they paid two US charities, the Human Growth Foundation and the MAGIC Foundation, to measure the height of thousands of American children in schools and public places, and to send letters urging medical consultations for children whose height was deemed low. Parents and schools were not told that the charities were being paid by the drug companies to do this. Paired with a campaign to advertise the hormone to physicians, the campaign was successful, and tens of thousands of children began receiving HGH. About half of them do not have growth hormone deficiency, and consequently benefited very little, if at all, from the hormone injections. Criticism of the universal screening program eventually resulted in its end. Advantage Short stature decreases the risk of venous insufficiency. History During World War I in Britain, the minimum height for soldiers was . Thus thousands of men under this height were denied the opportunity to fight in the war. As a result of pressure to allow them entry, special "Bantam Battalions" were created composed of men who were to . By the end of the war there were 29 Bantam Battalions of about 1,000 men each. Officers were of normal size. See also Dwarfism List of shortest people National Organization of Short Statured Adults Primordial dwarfism Psychosocial short stature—growth inhibition caused by extreme stress Pygmy References External links Human height Symptoms and signs