Submitted by D. Altschuler, Jan 8, 2007 08:21

NRDC is right about avoiding the lice pesticides. The oncologists admitting for leukemia or neurologists seeing kids in the ER with seizures wouldn't fathom that a pediatarician actually prescribed a lindane or malathion shampoo for the child. Nor would they anticipate a parent spraying the same child's bed and pillow with permethrin, -- but such sprays come with the lice shampoos. These chemical treatments are designed to be neurotoxins, so why consider them an unfounded scare??? Too many docs have similar mentality -- categorizing head lice as a nuisance while they go ahead and prescribe the heavy artillery.

ER docs don't know to include questions about shampooing with poison in their history taking. Parents who use the stuff don't offer up the information because they didn't realize what they were using in the first place.

As far as who controls the information, check out the trade sponsorships for Harvard School of Public Health Kids At Risk? It speaks volumes.

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