Chemicals Are Killing Our Children

Lachlanis is an 11 year old boy.

Lachlans condition is becoming clearer today after interim bone-marrow

results. He has hypocellular bone marrow with pancytopenia. This is known as

hypoplastic anaemia and until we have further tests and screening we will

not know the specifics or the degree of severity of his situation.

For those of you who prefer plain English, hypocellularbone marrow means

that the marrow is producing far too few blood cells. Pancytopenia means

that all of Lachlans blood counts are low platelets, haemoglobin and white

blood count. Hypoplastic anemia means that his bone marrow has not

completely shutdown but may be on the way to becoming aplastic (which is a

complete shutdown).

At this stage it appears that he has acquired this condition from exposure

to benzene in a head lice treatment that we have been using on and off since

August 2007. This shampoo is sold over the counter here in South Africa but

is banned in 52 countries around the world and severely restricted in 21

others. The chemical is gamma benzenehexachloride and the shampoos here in

South Africa that contain it are Gambex and Quellada, in most other

countries it goes by the brand Lindane or Kwell. In Australia, USA, UK,

Singapore, Hong Kong and EU countries you cannot use this product without a

prescription and it marked with a warning that the product should only be

used once, ever.

A note to parents, doctors, teachers, pharmacists anyone who may need to use

or recommend treatment for head lice – the products here in South Africa

contain no warnings, and in fact recommend repeated treatment if the head

lice are not completely cleared. A leaflet inside the box does note that

one of the possible side effects of using the product daily for 3 weeks

could be aplastic anaemia. However the WHO advises that anyone under 50kgs

is at risk of hypoplastic or aplastic anaemia and/or acute lymbastic

leukemia among other things, from just one 30ml exposure to the shampoo. The

risks compound if a person is hypersensitive to benzene, which appears to be

the case with Lachlan.

Please tell other parents about this. We are shocked, devastated and

appalled that a product that is known to cause this condition can be

marketed and sold in South Africa and other countries when there is so much

documented evidence regarding the damage it can cause, without clear

warnings or information on the packaging.

Regards

Kate Liebenberg

Y-I.T. (PTY) LTD

Office: +27 (0)31 562 9480

Mobile: +27 (0)82 468 5776

Email: <mailto:accounts@y-it.co.za%20> accounts@y-it.co.za

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