Riddle: what pesticide is so toxic it's not recommended any more for use on dogs, but is still widely used on kids' heads?
Answer: lindane. This highly poisonous substance is used as a shampoo to treat head lice, when less toxic and some mechanical alternatives (like intensive combing) are available. An association tracking the poison received 500 reports of "adverse events" involving children in two years. Several European nations and the State of California have banned all or most uses, including agricultural ones.
But when environmental groups and children's advocates recently petitioned the state's Departments of Agriculture and Community Health to ban the stuff in Michigan, chemical defenders turned out in force and squashed the proposal. "Wait for the feds to act" and "where are the dead bodies?" were the basic arguments.
Michigan was once a leader, banning DDT in April 1969 well before other states or the feds acted. No more.
http://www.ems.org/pops/lindane.html
Posted by Dave at October 13, 2004 08:48 PM