Report: Newspaper reports (page 14 of 28)
In 1997 The Times newspaper carried a report into the possible dangers of head lice lotions. It highlighted one case where parents had used ‘Derbac-M’ on their three sons after an outbreak of lice at their primary school:
“We kept treating them for about three or four months because they kept getting re-infected,” said the boys’ mother. “I asked the doctor if it was okay to keep using it, and he said it was fine.”
The Times reported that one son developed flu-like symptoms, became lethargic and suffered a personality change: “By Christmas he had become incontinent and could hardly walk. Doctors said the possible cause was organophosphates poisoning.” (Malathion is an organophosphate insecticide.)
The Times article went on to quote a senior lecturer in fetal and infant toxio-pathology at the University of Liverpool: “I have used these lotions myself in the past. But knowing what I do now, I would never dream of using them again on my children.”
