Comments Page on Ovide Malathion for head lice

By acknowledging that someone took the article down b/c they didn't have the energy to fight a law suit (even if this isn't you) you give them what they want. What they have threatened you with is a SLAPP (strategic lawsuit against public participation). I scanned your response and one very important point you left out is that applicators of pesticides cannot advertise them as safe according to the EPA. So safe is a relative term. Why even waste your time responding to this. Keep up your other good work.

So Malathion use on children is "safe?"
..... pigs not only fly but do so at the speed of light!
Rex Warren

From: "Keith & Fran Wollen"
To: "Steve Tvedten" <steve@getipm.com>; <bfoster@swlaw.com>

Incredible! Unbelievable! Disgusting! Of course, these are not reflections on Medicis--just my feelings! I sincerely hope that Foster was fuming as he read your responses. If he pursues this folly, I cannot imagine that he'd get to first base. I'd hate to see you have to go through the difficulties and expense of a trial, but it would be interesting to

See how a judge/jury would deal with such obscene charges. I suspect that Medicis would not like the result!

Glad you are out there, Steve. I hope one day you and Linda visit the website of the organization I am affliated with called www.nosprayzone.org. Oh, one of our members told the law firm he was sending around your letter to his PTA to warn the parents. On with the fight! Nancy

Date: Thu, 16 May 2002 09:26:04 -0700 (PDT)
From: cjsterritt2@yahoo.com>
Subject: Malathion's toxicity
To: bfoster@swlaw.com
Mr Foster:

It is important that you become educated about the product "malathion". Several years ago, the EPA itself decided that it was high time that this chemical be listed as a carcinogen.

However, the moment that pesticide industry officials learned of this happening, they rushed off to Washington DC and made it clear to the EPA that industry would not tolerate their product being labelled as a carcinogen. Due to the fact that these industries have lots of money to affect things like political campaign war chests, they were able to get the EPA to back down.

Those of us who investigate the control of the EPA, FDA etc by industry know that our government does little to protect us. Political deals have as much, if not more, to do with what product gets agency approval than with what science has to say. And of course, "independent scientists" who even once report on the likelihood of any chemical causing a health problem, well, these scientists are blacklisted and find it hard if not impossible to continue investigating risky chemicals.

And in looking at the supposed many tests of chemical products like malathion, we find that most of these are done on men, who weigh more than 180 pounds. There is no data on women, pregnant women, children. The tests done on animals look in general for things like tumor growth. After a rather limited time of study, the animals are sluaghtered and then examined for tumors.

However, in our society, the fastest growing diseases are those of the immune system. We are now a nation with record numbers of people coming down with auto-immune diseases such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, multiple sclerosis, asthma, attention deficit disorder, etc. There are no tests that I know of wherein industry has kept the affected test animals around long enough to see what problems these test animals would have in terms of their health in their older years.

There have been reports of malathion-induced leukemias. Such was the case of Mairn County's beloved activist Julia Kendall. Also, the New York City web site created to advise its citizens of what health effects to expect when that City was spraying malathion over the population, asthmatic reactions, eye irritation, and skin rashes were listed as things to watch for.

Here is an academic reference to dangers of using certain head lice formulations. It especially notes that these preparation should NOT be used by children with significant health problems (And since our nation's children include record numbers of kids with health problems such as asthma, skin rashes, learning deficit problems, attention deficit disorder, autism, etc, currently there are a lot kids who should avoid these products)

The above article also mentions that children who use this product more than once can face additional complications.

I also remember that there was a study out that had examined the stomach lining of children who were in utero during the 1981 and '82 malathion spraying of Penninsula Counties such as Santa Clara in Bay Area of San Francisco. The children thus exposed had stomach lining irregularities in much higher proportions than a normal population of children do.

Wow, the Malathion correspondence is amazing. Shake somebody up, did you?

Would it be ok for me to forward the Malathion info to someone in our group? This person has a Ph D in biology and has first hand knowledge of organo phosphate poisoning, as he went to the ER for this several years ago. He is adamit about the effects to this day.

Mary

I haven't read every single word of this yet. I did read what may amount to half of it. I can't even begin to describe how amused and happy I felt to see Steve tackle that arrogant son of a bi**h!

I'd already been warned to be careful what I say or I'd be sure to receive a threatening letter from the little guy's lawyers. I hate that sucker! I am so thrilled Steve has stood up to him. Will read all of it as I can, then print it out!

Thanks for sharing. I love it.

I went into http://www.safe2use.com/ca-ipm/00-11-28.htm . . . that lawyer can't count. There's two uses of "ineffective" and two uses of "toxic" and one use of "non-toxic" . . . not to mention, it clearly states that it is a PR Newswire release. Heavens to Betsy, maybe he's sniffed too many pesticides and fragrances.

Thanks for passing this along.

Do you want it further published????

Hope you are doing well.

-- barb

I am pasting the product info on Ovide. The manufacturer admits that they don't know how much of the stuff is absorbed through the scalp. They also say that it is an organophosphate pesticide, so I can't see how it is any different that the industrial kind. I have never heard any data that suggested pure malathion is less toxic than "impure" malathion. And how extensive were the safety studies they did on children before they approved this treatment. Sounds to me like this law firm is trying to intimidate you, but I would still proceed with caution. We once had to pay Dow Chemical $3,000 to get them to take a lein off our home.

http://www.ovide4headlice.com/prescriptioninfo.pdf

Let me know if there is anything else I can do.

Best,

Betty

I am not familiar with "pharmaceutical grade" malathion. You must be stating "truths", however, or they wouldn't be so outraged. I will check a little further on this and get back to you.

Best regards,

Betty Mekdeci
Birth Defect Research for Children

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