Malathion Head Lice
treatment - Another victim
I just received this PRESS RELEASE from David Allen
entitled: New concerns over organophosphate head lice treatment: woman is numb
one year later.
A year after school governor Marjorie Graham, 64, used an
insecticide treatment for head lice, she is left with a numb torso and arms
mystery symptoms her doctors can’t explain. She is urging parents to
use non-chemical methods of head lice control on children.
Dr Sarah Myhill, a GP who specialises in organophosphate
sheep-dip poisoning, says Mrs Graham’s symptoms could be due to the product.
‘They are typical of a peripheral neuropathy [disorder of the nervous system]
affecting both the sensory and motor nerves’, she says. ‘These are exactly
the sort of symptoms I would expect to see from an acute chemical poisoning
case.’
‘I caught head lice around Christmas last year’, says
Mrs Graham. ‘I bought a Health Authority-recommended head lice product and
followed the packet instructions to the letter.’
Marjorie Graham had a cold when she used the insecticide.
Four days later she developed numbness from her groin to her bust, muscle
weakness, tingling down her arms, and aching in her chest.
‘When I asked my doctors if my symptoms could have been
caused by my using the insecticide they were dubious’, says Mrs Graham, who
has had a battery of inconclusive medical tests since. ‘They wouldn’t even
notify the medical authorities of a possible reaction until I insisted. If it
happens to anyone else at least there will be a record now.’
Alison Craig of Pesticide Action Network UK says ‘We are
very concerned that cases such as Mrs Graham’s are not being either diagnosed
or recorded by the medical authorities.
‘We want to hear from anyone whose children have had
symptoms after using an insecticide head lice treatment. Contact us in
confidence on 020 7274 6611.’
ENDS
CONTACTS: Marjorie Graham tel 01243 603156
Dr Sarah Myhill GP tel 01547 550331
Alison Craig, Pesticide Action Network UK 020 7274 6611 (office)
or 07951 388567 (mobile), alisoncraig@pan-uk.org
Community Hygiene Concern tel 020 8341 7167 www.nits.net/bugbusting
NOTES TO EDITORS
1. The insecticide contains the
organophosphate malathion. Organophosphates work by damaging the nervous systems
of insects, and can also affect the nervous system of humans.
2. PAN-UK wants a ban on the use of
chemical head lice insecticides on children. The most recent advice to family
doctors was the leaflet issued by the Doctor Patient Partnership in September
2000. It warns against insecticides for people with asthma, dermatitis, pregnant
women and babies under 6 months old. But it gives no details of organophosphate
poisoning symptoms. PAN-UK says they won’t then be diagnosed by doctors.
3. Community Hygiene Concern have
developed a method of clearing head lice, called Bug-busting, which avoids the
use of any insecticide.
4. A study in 1997 by the Health
& Safety Executive and Dr Vyvyan Howard of Liverpool University found that
head lice insecticides used on children contain enough organophosphate to put
them five times over government safety limits, and that repeated use may damage
the nervous system.
5. Following the publication of the
government’s Committee on Toxicity report on organophosphates in December
1999, further government-funded research on the effects of organophosphates on
children and adults is being commissioned.
11 January 2001
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