Skin so soft: Can you Ditch the DEET?
Ever since it's introduction people hailed Avon's Skin So Soft (SSS) as a natural, safe, pleasant smelling insect and tick repellent. The first time I heard of SSS was back in 1988 from a friend who was lucky enough to be hired as a nanny for The Who front man Roger Daltry. She slathered the stuff on his kids until Roger proclaimed "No, love - it just isn't natural".
Surprisingly, Avon never backed such claims of repellency - but they never refuted them, either. In a somewhat ambiguous answer about SSS's repelling properties to its customers, Avon released SSS Bug Guard Plus IR3535®.
IR3535 is well known in Europe (of course - they get all the good stuff first) but has had a slow reception State-side. It was introduced to the US in 1999, still has an unblemished safety record yet remains unpopular.
Surprisingly there have only been about 10 published papers comparing DEET to IR3535. Thankfully, a recent paper published last month in the Journal of Medical Entomology provides a look into the confusing collage of repellents.
A listing on Avon's Web site states "Repels mosquitoes that may transmit West Nile Virus for 8 hours. Provides effective protection against gnats, no-seeums, sand flies and biting midges. DEET-free, dermatologist-tested, hypoallergenic." I think we Americans are still waiting for real, "likely to cause cancer in lab animals" evidence before we will ditch the DEET. I think part of the problem is that IR3535 just doesn't roll off the tongue like DEET.
You might have read from a previous post of mine that DEET is a confusant, not a repellent. That would be the difference between looking at a pizza smelling perfume instead of cheese versus looking at a pizza and smelling poop. The smell of perfume isn't bad, it's just not tasty or what you'd expect. You should NOT want to dig in to a pizza that smells like poop - that's a repellant.
The author compared IR3535 with DEET and with Picardin (lemon eucalyptus oil). The findings left IR3535 a tad behind in performance with DEET and the oil, although there were some surprising results.
For black-legged ticks (Ixodes scapularis) the average test subject (scientific lingo for human) who applied IR3535 in either 10% lotion or 20% pump spray was "invisible" to ticks for 11 hours! No test subjects were bitten by mosquitoes in over 7 hours! These weren't anemic lab-bred ticks and mosquitoes, mind you. They were full-on marsh and field bugs, hungry for blood.
Considering the safety of IR3535 (which I will still apply to clothing only, making my clothes so soft) and the fact that Avon makes an "Expedition Formula" in a hunter green bottle, I may be off of OFF! this year.
Scruffy Dan's photo of Laotian Anti-malaria poster, Laos 2006
Surprisingly, Avon never backed such claims of repellency - but they never refuted them, either. In a somewhat ambiguous answer about SSS's repelling properties to its customers, Avon released SSS Bug Guard Plus IR3535®.IR3535 is well known in Europe (of course - they get all the good stuff first) but has had a slow reception State-side. It was introduced to the US in 1999, still has an unblemished safety record yet remains unpopular.
Surprisingly there have only been about 10 published papers comparing DEET to IR3535. Thankfully, a recent paper published last month in the Journal of Medical Entomology provides a look into the confusing collage of repellents.
A listing on Avon's Web site states "Repels mosquitoes that may transmit West Nile Virus for 8 hours. Provides effective protection against gnats, no-seeums, sand flies and biting midges. DEET-free, dermatologist-tested, hypoallergenic." I think we Americans are still waiting for real, "likely to cause cancer in lab animals" evidence before we will ditch the DEET. I think part of the problem is that IR3535 just doesn't roll off the tongue like DEET.
You might have read from a previous post of mine that DEET is a confusant, not a repellent. That would be the difference between looking at a pizza smelling perfume instead of cheese versus looking at a pizza and smelling poop. The smell of perfume isn't bad, it's just not tasty or what you'd expect. You should NOT want to dig in to a pizza that smells like poop - that's a repellant.
The author compared IR3535 with DEET and with Picardin (lemon eucalyptus oil). The findings left IR3535 a tad behind in performance with DEET and the oil, although there were some surprising results.
For black-legged ticks (Ixodes scapularis) the average test subject (scientific lingo for human) who applied IR3535 in either 10% lotion or 20% pump spray was "invisible" to ticks for 11 hours! No test subjects were bitten by mosquitoes in over 7 hours! These weren't anemic lab-bred ticks and mosquitoes, mind you. They were full-on marsh and field bugs, hungry for blood.
Considering the safety of IR3535 (which I will still apply to clothing only, making my clothes so soft) and the fact that Avon makes an "Expedition Formula" in a hunter green bottle, I may be off of OFF! this year.
Scruffy Dan's photo of Laotian Anti-malaria poster, Laos 2006
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Most people would agree that a reliable treatment would make avoiding mosquitoes less important.
GenoMed, a genomics-based Disease Management company in St. Louis, has had encouraging results treating West Nile virus encephalitis since 2003.
We’ve had 82% treatment success rate in people (23 of 28 improved), 75% in horses (6 of 8 survived), and 50% in birds (6 of 12 survived). Our first 8 human WNV patients were published in a peer-reviewed medical journal in 2004 (1). This is sufficient for our treatment to officially exist in both the medical and legal senses, regardless of what the CDC does (or doesn’t) say.
We’ve seen that the earlier the treatment is begun, the better the outcome, so public education is absolutely critical—literally, the difference between life and death.
Anybody who wants to download our WNV trial protocol can do so for free at any time by clicking on the "West Nile trial" link on our company’s homepage at www.genomed.com.
Dave Moskowitz MD
CEO & Chief Medical Officer
GenoMed, Inc. (Ticker symbol GMED on OTC Pink Sheets)
www.genomed.com
“The public health company™”
1. Moskowitz DW, Johnson FE. The central role of angiotensin I-converting enzyme in vertebrate pathophysiology. Curr Top Med Chem. 2004;4(13):1433-54. PMID: 15379656 (For PDF file, click on paper #6 at: http://www.genomed.com/index.cfm?action=investor&drill=publications)
My neighbor SWEARS by patchouli oil. Its natural though he smells a bit like a "hippie". He said he would rather smell like a hippie then put DEET anywhere near his body. Not sure if its all in his head but it seems to work.
So are you suggesting I rub poop on myself? Or wear perfume? I'm confused.
Thanks for writing this.