Cleaner water, healthier children, improving environment.  That is all what has happened from the ban of pharmaceutical lindane by the state of California.  In 2002 California banned the use of Lindane, a pesticide and medical prescription for the treatment of head lice and scabies.  The reason for the ban was that Lindane was due to the impact on our water supply.  Of increasing concern is the accumulation of pharmaceuticals in the waste water either by people dumping their prescriptive drugs into the toilet or just through excretion of the medications in the urine or feces.  The water, though treated and filtered do not complete extract these pharmaceutical and they often reenter our food supply via contamination of fish, seafood, and vegetables or fruits watered by our treated waste water.  This has immense impact on our environment and eventually our own health. 

Classes of drugs that have been found in wastewater include anti-inflammatories, anti-hypertensives (beta-blockers), cholesterol lowering drugs, antibiotics, oral contraceptives, anti-depressants and anti-nausea drugs.  Included in this list was Lindane.  Althought there is technology that can filter out the medication residue, not all municipalities can afford such technologies and therefore much of it can end up back in humans without us knowing about it. 

Lindane's toxicity is well known and its popularity as a medical treatment has been decreasing since it's height of usage in the 1940's.  When used as a medication, acute lindane exposure included symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, dizziness, seizures, headaches, numbness, and in some cases, death.  Because if it's toxicity and it's level of effectiveness, it is less effective than first line therapies such as permethrin or malathion, it was recommended by the FDA to be prescribed only as a second line of therapy for lice.  In California in 2002 it was decided to be banned as a pharmaceutical. 

Interestingly, in 2007, a study done by UCSF (University of California, San Francisco) researchers found that the wastewater concentration of lindane went from 36 ppt (parts per thousand) in 1999 in Los A ngeles county down to almost non-detectable in 2006.  In 1998, there were 135 calls per 100,000 to the poison control center regarding lindane toxicity, in 2006 there were 2.  Prescriptions for lindane went from 114,000 in 1997 down to 37 in 2002.  Alternatives to lindane were working very well and few doctors missed the use of lindane and our environment benefited from the shift.

As the green movement progresses and awareness grows of the environmental impact of our actions.  We will see increasing moves toward a cleaner future.  Currently the US FDA has not banned the use of pharmaceutical lindane  but the pesticide is under review by the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants and which may lead to a worldwide ban on the substance.  In the meantime, do your part by not flushing medications down the toilet and know the toxic side effects of medications that you put into your body so that you can understand both the pros and cons affecting your health. 

Comment:

This is also a common ingredient in flea shampoo. These directions work fine for med -large pets.

Bella Mira Essential Oils Nightingale, tea tree, or eucalyptus radiata; work quite well at preventing or killing head lice. To prevent use 10 drops in your favorite shampoo. To Treat massage 20 drops into a large dollop of your favorite conditioner and leave in for 10 minutes, rinse. Use 20 drops in your favorite shampoo and do conditioner treatment again if needed in 2 weeks.