Old doesn't always mean outdated. So much of what we wrote back in the eighties and nineties holds true today. We often describe information as being from the Archives to let readers know that we know the information isn't brand new. This said, please be assured that a particular age doesn't always make the messaging any less worthy. http://www.headlice.org/news/classics/defining.htm

https://www.panna.org/blog/reflections-part-1-pesticide-industrys-playbook#.YevR9dID8Vw.twitter https://www.panna.org/blog/reflections-part-two-kids-pesticides-science?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=tw&utm_campaign=children "Kristin Schafer is PAN's Executive Director. With training in international policy and social change strategies, Kristin has been at PAN for over 20 years. Before taking on the Executive Director role, she was PAN's program and policy director. She has bee

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AG26_045IJg

Learning what nits (lice eggs) look like, encouraging the screening for them for early detection and removal has always been the focus of informing parents and helping them in the task of caring for children with head lice. A recent report teaches us that nits may deserve a bit more respect than what we have been giving them. It's great to see researchers doing this kind of work. News Release: 28-Dec-2021 Nits on ancient mummies shed light on South American ancestry. Ne

https://www.headlice.org/comb/september-is-national-head-lice-prevention-month-2/

https://www.headlice.org/comb/september-is-national-head-lice-prevention-month-2/

The NPA offers a comprehensive approach to managing pediculosis in children based on early detection and thorough removal of lice and nits through combing. Combing requires the use of a quality lice and nit removal comb which in turn empowers parents to send their children to school free of lice and nits. Screening with a Comb Allows for early detection and removal when there are fewer lice and nits present Allows parents to be first to know when their child is infested Empow

This September's National Pediculosis Association’s (NPA) 2020 head lice prevention campaign offers the first comprehensive list of the benefits of combing, a basic hygiene measure. NEWTON, Mass. (PRWEB) August 25, 2020 Back to school 2020 is fraught with challenges for parents and school leaders trying to figure out whether, let alone how, children and staff can return to school safely amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The heightened attention to this communicable virus has remind

This long list of reasons for combing should make parents wonder why their particular school lice policy doesn't encourage combing instead of recommending treatments with pesticides. It's incredulous how much health and wellness can be gained with the use of one $12.00 non-consumable combing tool. With the challenges of COVID19 -- children returning to school still deserve to be protected from other communicable diseases including head lice and risky treatments. Pediculosi

"As public health officials develop guidelines for these challenging times of COVID-19, the NPA wants to minimize head lice as a public health burden when children return to school." The National Pediculosis Association Calls for A Critical Review of the Centers for Disease Control's Website Information on Lice. See press release: https://www.headlice.org/comb/the-national-pediculosis-association-calls-for-a-critical-review-of-the-centers-for-disease-controls-website-informa

https://www.headlice.org/comb/zinsser-project/human-head-lice-and-their-ability-to-transmit-disease/

“The National Pediculosis Association (NPA) appreciates the complexity of these times with COVID-19.  Our intent here is to minimize pediculosis as an additional public health burden when children return to school and other group settings.  We would be pleased to lend our assistance to the CDC in updating its published information on head lice in order to help achieve this goal.” Please see the National Pediculosis Association’s letter to the Centers for Disease Control conce

February 10, 2020 ​ NEWTON, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The National Pediculosis Association (NPA) of Newton, Mass. today announced a milestone in its mission to educate parents on chemical-free ways to screen and treat children with head lice. ​ Following review of a citizen petition from the NPA, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has updated its website, Treating and Preventing Head Lice, noting that lice removal kits, which are “comb or comb-like” devices, are a treatm

This is my favorite Dr. Hans Zinsser quote. I found it while I was sitting cross-legged on the floor of the Harvard Countway Medical Library Rare Books Section going through Dr. Zinsser’s papers. The boxes were stacked one on top of the other and before Dr. Zinsser’s work was available in a formal collection. With great thanks to Dick Wolfe, the Rare Books Curator, I was the first person to open and go through the Zinsser boxes which were donated with his work to the Countw

National Pediculosis Association Urges Parents to Be Proactive as New School Year Starts Newton, MA—August is back-to-school for many communities across the nation and time to prepare the kids for returning to the classroom. The National Pediculosis Association (NPA) encourages parents to screen their children’s hair for pediculosis so these students can join their friends free of lice and their nits (lice eggs). The message for parents is to be diligent about pediculosis – a

Writing about public health issues carries weighty responsibility - especially when advice enjoys the credibility of a professional organization and its good name. But regardless of where it comes from, news should never represent opinions as fact. This is an ever present challenge for writing articles about pediculosis.  As recently as yesterday,  USA Today quotes the current president of the National Association of School Nurses with comments that we believe to be false and

It’s encouraging and enormously important to see independent researchers currently looking at the issues of body lice and head lice again, motivated by both healthy curiosity and scientific interest.   There was a long stretch of time during which most of the information available on the subject of human lice was generated by conflicted experts hired to promote pesticidal treatments which in turn were vigorously marketed by the pharmaceutical industry. Looking back at the lit

I remember NPA’s activism in the early 1980s and can vividly picture sitting back to back with Leslie Kenney in our tiny cubicle of an office armed with a Selectric typewriter and a phone. In those days, before e-mail and the ability to communicate over the Internet, we did it all the hard way: with mass mailings of Xeroxed letters in hand-stamped envelopes, sorted by zip code, bundled into boxes and driven to the one local post office designated for USPS nonprofit bundling s

In the Beginning… I’m not the first to say it, but there’s little doubt that those of us who love to talk, but loathe writing, will say that getting started is the hardest part. Yet here I am, with lots to share from my years of work – challenged, but excited, to be writing for my first ever blog. My goal is to tell some of the untold stories of the NPA and its work, and share some of the motivations and insights I’ve gained on other matters from taking on the issue of pedicu