September is National Head Lice Prevention Month. The campaign aims to remind parents to screen the kids regularly, detect lice and nits early and remove them. Just like hand washing, combing children for head lice is a basic hygiene measure. Thorough removal of lice and nits provides a reliable approach for parents and accomplishes what shampooing with potentially risky chemicals cannot. Combing enables families to be self-reliant and proactive. The US Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) educational information includes combing as a complete non-chemical treatment method for pediculosis. Parents should be encouraged to keep treatments chemical and toxic free and warned to avoid the surprise of head lice and the unfortunate abundance of misleading information on the …
Developing a new method for remediation of contaminated wooden structures
In Germany, there are about 3 million buildings that are contaminated with the toxic wood preservatives lindane and pentachlorophenol (PCP). Previous measures for minimizing contamination include insulating contaminated areas or disposing of treated wooden building materials as hazardous waste. However, these measures are neither sustainable nor cost-efficient. In the CycloPlasma project, researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics IBP are developing a new type of process to remove these decades-old contaminants—in the air as well as in contaminated wooden structures—in a way that is residue-free, sustainable and does not pose a health risk. For this purpose, the scientists have combined an innovative adsorber material with plasma technology. In the 1970s and 1980s, …
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The Fantastic Laboratory of Dr. Weigl:
Arthur Allen talked about his book The Fantastic Laboratory of Dr. Weigl: How Two Brave Scientists Battled Typhus and Sabotaged the Nazis. This interview was held at the 37th Annual National Press Club Book Fair and Authors' Night, a fundraiser held by the National Press Club Journalism Institute, in partnership with Politics & Prose, for the Eric Friedheim National Journalism Library and the SEED Foundation. It was held November 18, 2014, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. in the National Press Club ballroom. close C-SPAN: https://www.c-span.org/video/?322943-31/the-fantastic-labratory-dr-weigl …
European Parliament’s environment committee votes on draft pesticides reduction law
On 24 October, members of the European Parliament’s committee on environment, public health and food safety (ENVI) gave the green light to the draft proposal for a Sustainable Use of Pesticides Regulation (SUR), ensuring negotiations on a future EU-wide pesticides reduction law continue. A majority of committee members voted in favour of the proposal for a legally-binding pesticides reduction law: 47 voted in favour, 37 against and two abstained. The proposal, put forward by the European Commission in June 2022, aims to reduce the use and risk of chemical pesticides in the EU by 50 percent by 2030. While the adopted proposal includes some improvements to the original text, EDC-Free Europe members have pointed out it still falls short on key provisions to protect …
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September is National Head Lice Prevention Month and a Reminder to Send the Children Back to School Free of Lice and Nits!
The National Pediculosis Association (NPA) encourages parents to work as a community during back-to-school and send their children to their classrooms free of pediculosis, a communicable disease. NEWTON, Mass., Sept. 1, 2023 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- September is National Head Lice Prevention Month! No matter what the school policy or other more pressing public health issues in the news – head lice infestations known medically as pediculosis, can be extremely challenging for the people who have them. The NPA encourages parents to work as a community during back-to-school and send their children into the classroom free of pediculosis, a communicable disease. Routine screening and early detection with a comb should be the parental "go to" prevention tool, striving always be …
Insect Apocalypse
Generally unloved and disregarded, insects are in fact the most successful group of animals on Earth and have been for more than 400 million years. With a million described species (and a lot more still out there to find) and numbers measured in the quintillions, insects underpin almost all terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems. But in the last few decades, populations all over the world have collapsed with terrifying speed. The declines are so severe that we stand on the brink of total ecosystem collapse. After all, as Harvard biologist E. O. Wilson pointed out; ‘these are the little animals that run the world’. Princeton University Press: https://press.princeton.edu/ideas/insect-apocalypse …
Ron White – an Unsung Hero
The late Ron White from Anderson, South Carolina was an unsung hero. He was the extremely creative person who generously volunteered his time and ability to find a way for our small nonprofit, in the absence of financial means, to develop and market a quality lice and nit removal comb for children with pediculosis. We called it the LiceMeister comb and it set a high new standard for such medical devices around the world. It was because of Ron's help that millions of children have and continue to be protected from the toxic effects of pesticide treatments that otherwise would have been repeatedly applied to their scalps. The LiceMeister comb became the comb for all reasons. It works to screen, detect, identify and remove head lice and their eggs. It is easily cleaned and families as well as …
Remnants of Two Banned Insecticides Nearly Eliminated in Great Lakes Region
Two banned insecticides known to linger in the atmosphere have been all but eliminated from North America’s Great Lakes region, a study finds. “For once we can report something positive,” Marta Venier, an environmental chemist at Indiana University and coauthor of the study, told Environmental Health News. “A few of the chemicals we’ve been measuring for a long time are well underway to being eliminated from the atmosphere.” Scientists analyzed data from a U.S.-Canadian monitoring program that has tracked atmospheric concentrations of insecticides at several sites in the Great Lakes region. Measurements, taken every 12 days, date back to the early 1990s. Three of the insecticides studied — DDT, chlordane, and hexachlorobenzene — have persisted in the atmosphere, …
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Pet flea treatments poisoning rivers across England, scientists find
Highly toxic insecticides used on cats and dogs to kill fleas are poisoning rivers across England, a study has revealed. The discovery is “extremely concerning” for water insects, and the fish and birds that depend on them, the scientists said, who expect significant environmental damage is being done. The research found fipronil in 99% of samples from 20 rivers and the average level of one particularly toxic breakdown product of the pesticide was 38 times above the safety limit. Fipronil and another nerve agent called imidacloprid that was found in the rivers have been banned from use on farms for some years. There are about 10 million dogs and 11 million cats in the UK, with an estimated 80% receiving flea treatments, whether needed or not. The researchers said the blanket use of …
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