Parents Fight Back! Chasing Head Lice with Chemicals is a Losing Proposition for Everyone, ...but the Lice
Industry sponsored guidelines developed in 2000 to promote sales of pesticide treatments for head lice continue to be used as the basis of allowing lice infested children to remain in the classroom. Parents across the country are fighting back!
(PRWEB) March 28, 2005 -- Parents across the country continue to fight back
as No Nit Policies are denied in order to allow lice infested children to remain
in the classroom. The National Pediculosis Association (NPA) urges everyone in
the circle of responsibility for children to do their homework before abandoning
their prevention protocols.
The NPA's No Nit Policy recommends a public
health approach to controlling head lice and is available for review at www.headlice.org.
The NPA’s policy advocates a proactive approach -- informing communities about
pediculosis in advance of outbreaks and providing pertinent information to
enable parents to safely control head lice and send their children to school
lice and nit free.
As it is today, many schools are switching to a
reactive stance, refusing to dismiss infested children, hoping to control head
lice outbreaks with pesticide shampoos which are not only potentially harmful to
the children, but contain chemicals to which the lice are solidly
resistant.
Michelle Veres, a concerned parent in Florida, has started a
petition drive (www.headlice.org/news/2005/brevardcty.htm) to reinstate their
No Nit Policy and is exposing the history of how product-marketing gambits
dictate school policy. She says: “It’s appalling that the school board says that
as long as a child has been treated with a pesticide they can return to school
with nits in their hair. Lice are communicable and their eggs keep the cycle of
infestation going. Don’t show me some bogus study done by someone funded by a
pediculicide company that says the nits aren’t likely to hatch after treatment.”
Over eighty-six percent of more than 1000 people who responded to an NPA
poll posted on www.headlice.org agree that children should not be in school
with lice and nits. NPA reports that parents do not expect miracles, but they do
expect schools to do the best they can.
J. Lytel, a Sudbury,
Massachusetts parent has been helping to get the word out. She wants parents to
know in advance that “Products provide a false sense of security and do not
eliminate the problem.” She says, "Dependence on them can prolong outbreaks in a
classroom by allowing infested children to return and infest their peers."
Chasing lice with chemicals is a losing proposition for everyone but the
lice. The NPA encourages routine screening, early detection and manual removal
of all lice and nits as the safest, most practical and realistic method for
taking control of the head louse, a blood-obligate human parasite.
For
more information and a complimentary Critter Card to help you identify lice and
nits visit www.headlice.org.
The NPA is a non-profit organization
serving the public since 1983. The number one website on head lice issues, www.headlice.org is
strictly independent and offers parents and health professionals helpful
resources on this important public health problem.
You will find
everything from a national reporting registry -- to a photo gallery of lice and
nits -- to e-cards -- to fun games for children to play during nit removal
sessions plus a child friendly (designed by kids) section for kids to learn.
Headlice.org also offers a helpful variety of free information downloads for
community education and outreach.
"Because it's not about lice, it's
about kids."
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/3/prweb222246.htm