urge the FDA to ban toxic chemical Lindane

[blondie58]

This is used to treat head lice in children, among other things.

http://www.nrdconline.org/campaign/nrdcaction_101206_a

[Solo_in_MD]

1. Any viable alternatives?

[KT2000]

2. The sad thing is

there are so many safe alternatives. There is no need for children to be exposed to this potent neurotoxin.

The site I want to refer you to is not available right now as the owner is likley working on it. I will post to this thread when it becomes available.

One of the methods is to coat the hair with mayonnaise or a thick hand cream. Dry the hair with a hair dryer and wash out after it has dried. Lice gone. No problems with the lice evolving to resist the pesticide either.

[blondie58]

3. another sad fact is

that the lice are turning into a super bug- emerging from each outbreak and becoming stronger and stronger, as bugs can do.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

4. baby oil works too

but you have to wash your hair several times after to get it all out. and repeat once a week for a month or so.

Wash all bedding and dry in a dryer (heat kills the eggs)

[KT2000]

6. Here is the link

everything you wanted to know about lice
Treatment is down the page.
(This is written by an ex-pesticide applicator who has developed safer methods. He lost his baby to what they said was pesticide exposure)

http://www.thebestcontrol.com/lice-chapter/about_lice.htm

[eppur_se_muova]

5. Why is ANYONE still using this crap?

Bans

Lindane is banned in 52 countries, and under review for addition to the Stockholm Convention On Persistent Organic Pollutants.<1> In the U.S. the EPA recently banned all agricultural uses of lindane, but the FDA still allows lindane to be used in pharmaceuticals products for the treatment of headlice and scabies. California has banned all uses of lindane, and there is a bill in the New York State Assembly and Senate to ban its use in headlice products and limit its use on scabies. Its use is restricted or banned in most of Europe and many developing countries.<2> Mexico is the next of many nations who are banning lindane. Larger than the issue of toxicity of lindane itself, the bans also have to do with the other isomers of HCH produced as by-products, which have little or no use. These isomers were stockpiled in open heaps by lindane producers in the 1940s and 1950s leading to severe ground and water contamination.