Re: Popular Insect Repellent Deet Is Neurotoxic

I thought that VX gas was a more potent cholinesterase inhibitor.

I remember using various flea/tick insecticides on my dog. There were numerous warnings that it was a mild cholinestrase inhibitor and that atropine could be administered in case of serious poisoning.

You should see what these things do. Once as a naive kid I caught a cricket and just placed one drop of diazanon (since banned in the US for household sales) in a jar. It sort of twitched itself to death. I'm pretty sure it was dead within seconds, but it just kept on twitching for about 40 seconds.

Iiiiiittttt Iiiiiiissss????????

DEET does make your lips numb. So...don't get it on your lips.

Quote
Vince
So...don't get it on your lips.

Yeah, right. Like anybody can stop it.

So far as I can tell from the prelininary article, there is not much dramatically new reported. I don't think this report will change the use of DEET. There are many reports of neurotoxicity, seizures, and cholinergic excess syndromes in the medical literature and many animal studies, recommendations to use lower concentrations on children and reports that DEET may have additive or synergistic effects with insecticides. The molecule, DEET, resembles many amino ester local anesthetics, which probably explains the lip numbness. Are there warning labels on the DEET products sold in California?

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The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.
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