Woman Numb After Headlice Treatment

Woman Numb After Headlice Treatment

A year after a school principal in the U.K. used an insecticide treatment for headlice, her torso and arms are still numb.

Doctors cannot explain her mysterious symptoms.

She is urging parents to use non-chemical methods of headlice control on children.

These symptoms could be due to the product used to kill the headlice, which contains the organophosphate malathion, according to a doctor who specializes in organophosphate sheep-dip poisoning.

Organophosphates work by damaging the nervous systems of insects, and can also affect the human nervous system.

The principal's symptoms are typical of a peri-pheral neuropathy (nervous system disorder) affecting both the sensory and motor nerves, according to the doctor. "These are exactly the sort of symptoms I would expect to see from an acute chemical poisoning case."

The woman got headlice in December 1999 and used a government recommended treat-ment — following the instructions on the label.

Four days later she developed numbness from her groin to her bust, muscle weakness, tingling down her arms, and aching in her chest.

A study in 1997 found that headlice 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.

Source: Pesticide Information Update No. 29. Reprinted from the Global Pesticide Campaigner, a publication of Pesticide Action Network North America