EPA to Assess The Risks of Lindane EPA Docket Control #0PP-34239

We Can't Wait Another 15 Years!

      BOSTON, Oct. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provides an opportunity for public comment on the risks of Lindane once every 15 years. This deadline is October 29, 2001. The National Pediculosis Association and the Los Angeles County Sanitation Department encourage the public to contact the EPA on this matter.
     Lindane, a bio-accumulative and toxic chemical, is a known health risk to humans, especially children, and its adverse affects are far reaching from learning disabilities, to birth defects, to breast cancer, to leukemia, to seizures, to death. Lindane pollutes 6 million gallons of water with a single treatment for head lice or scabies. Rinsing into household sinks and showers puts Lindane through public sewers and into water supplies, which, at the most basic level, violates regulations for residential hazardous waste disposal.
     Lindane is toxic and an unnecessary risk to all forms of life and for this reason has been banned in the state of California. The EPA needs to hear from the public in order to amend the rules governing their assessment of Lindane for the rest of the country. The EPA has scientific documentation of the environmental risks of Lindane when used as a human lice and scabies treatment. However, due to the separation of power between the EPA and FDA (Food and Drug Administration), the EPA is not allowed to include this data in its Lindane Risk Assessment. THIS MUST CHANGE NOW! We cannot afford to wait another 15 years for government agencies to fully cooperate on this urgent matter affecting the public health and environment.
     We can't remove every potentially harmful chemical exposure in our lives. Therefore it is vital that we remove those that we can. Lindane must go and we must remain vigilant not to replace this poison with another.

     A prepared sample letter for you to submit directly to the EPA is available at http://www.headlice.org/ or write to the EPA including docket number 0PP-34239.

     The National Pediculosis Association is a Non Profit organization serving the public since 1983 with a mission to protect children from unnecessary exposure to pesticides used to treat lice and scabies. The NPA along with LA County Sanitation Department recently received the prestigious 2001 Most Valuable Pollution Prevention Award for the nation. http://www.headlice.org/news/headlines/nppr.htm

SOURCE The National Pediculosis Association
Web Site: http://www.headlice.org/