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Clothes that bite back:
Deborah Franklin
Edmonton Journal 05-28-2006
The Buzz in Fashion: Insecticide- laced clothing, a product tested in the rigours of combat, appears ready for consumers to arm themselves against the summer invasion of marauding insects
A dozen years ago, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences convened a panel to weigh the health pros and cons of issuing soldiers combat uniforms that had been pre-treated with the insecticide permethrin. In the end, the panel deemed the clothing a safe and effective way to help the military prevent malaria, leishmaniasis, and other beleaguering, insect-borne illnesses that can pose a threat to fighting forces as great as bullets or bombs.
This fall, Dr. Gene McConnell, the toxicologist who led that academy committee, will reach for a consumer's version of the same clothing, now offered by a variety of retailers, when he fights mosquitoes while fly-fishing in Alaska.
"I have a couple of these shirts and I love them, not because they look good, but because they work," said McConnell, a former director of the division of toxicology, research and testing at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, who now is a private consultant in Raleigh, N.C.
McConnell, who does not have financial ties to pesticide companies or clothing makers, said he still put a little of the insect repellent DEET on the back of his exposed neck on the buggiest days in Alaska, and sprayed some along the brim of his cap. But he credits the permethrin-treated shirt for warding off swarms of mosquitoes that would otherwise bite through the thin cloth on his back as he wades into creeks.
With the bacteria that cause Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever now endemic among ticks in several areas of North America, and cases of mosquito-borne West Nile virus turning up in nearly every state and most Canadian provinces, the threat is no longer just a soldier's bane or a vacationer's nuisance. And clothing retailers have taken notice.
Tommy Hilfiger now markets a line of twill golf shorts and cotton polo shirts treated with permethrin. Ex Officio sells treated gardening aprons, canvas gloves and socks. And L.L. Bean offers insecticide- drenched hats, shirts and zip-off convertible hiking pants in tropical colours.
Richard Lane, president of Buzz Off Insect Shield, a five-year- old textile treatment company in Greensboro, N.C., is behind the patent- pending process that binds the permethrin to the outside of those clothes in a way that regulators confirm will stand up to at least 25 washings.
Lane says he hopes to expand use of the technology. "Will we see a Buzz Off tux very soon? Probably not. But I did take one of our jackets to an outdoor wedding recently."
Is all this garb really necessary? More to the point, is it safe, and does it work?
Jury is still out on safety of permethrin-treated duds
For safety, the answer is encouraging, though the data is not all in.
Permethrin is a synthetic, longer-lasting cousin to a natural insecticide found in chrysanthemums. Since 1977, it has been incorporated in various products approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for killing or controlling insects. It is the active ingredient in many household foggers, crop sprays, flea dips for pets, and lice shampoos for people, as well as in sprays and soaks meant for clothing, mosquito nets and tents.
Unlike DEET or other repellents thought to confuse biting insects by masking carbon dioxide in breath and other body odours, permethrin is thought to stun or kill the bugs by disrupting their nervous systems when they bite something coated with the chemical -- or, perhaps, just get close to it. Permethrin is thought to work even better than DEET against ticks.
Over the years, some rat studies have indicated that very high oral doses of permethrin -- much higher than those humans would be exposed to in normal use -- might also cause tremors and seizures in animals. But occasional skin irritation, and hay fever or similar symptoms among people allergic to chrysanthemums, are the sort of adverse effects that consumers have reported.
Still, one environmental publication, the Green Guide, has objected to sale of the clothing, saying its health and environmental effects are still in question.
Marion Ehrich, a former president of the Society for Toxicology and a co-director of the Laboratory for Neurotoxicity Studies, at Virginia Tech, said studies had shown that permethrin was not readily absorbed by the skin. "It's just not stable on skin," she said. "It breaks down quickly."
That instability, not health concern, is the main reason that the insecticide is suggested for use on fabrics. Repellents containing DEET, picaridin, or oil of lemon eucalyptus are treatments recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for use on skin.
Any absorbed permethrin, Ehrich said, tends to be rapidly broken down into harmless metabolites and excreted, unlike some other chemicals that can accumulate in body tissues.
There are no published studies exploring the effectiveness of the permethrin-treated consumer clothing. But most of the data from military uniforms has shown a protective effect that can be enhanced with judicious use of repellent on exposed skin.
In one particularly vivid field trial against mosquitoes in Alaska, published in 1988, volunteers in permethrin-treated uniforms who also used a repellent containing 35 per cent DEET on their exposed skin were bitten an average of once per hour over eight hours; volunteers in untreated uniforms who did not use DEET averaged 1,188 bites per hour.
Still, McConnell urges consumers to resist the notion that "a little is good, so a lot must be better" when using pesticides or repellents.
"You have to use your head," he said. "Don't expose yourself to any pesticide unless there's a benefit. If I lived in a tick-prone area, I wouldn't hesitate to have it on all the kids' play clothes. But in the city, maybe not.
"And I wouldn't put it on clothes worn in the winter when insects aren't a problem. I wouldn't wear it to the office."
Vicki Kramer, chief of the vector-borne diseases section of the California Department of Health Services, said some travellers on brief trips to regions infested with biting insects might find it cheaper to buy a permethrin spray and treat their own clothing, though such sprays do not stay effective through as many washings.
"Follow the label directions," Kramer said. "As long as you're doing that, cost, convenience and personal preference should be the consumer's guide when trying to figure out which of these products to use."
Copyright Edmonton Journal 2006
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