Head lice warning letters sent out by schools can prompt many parents to administer insecticidal lotions without correctly diagnosing an actual infection.

As well as exposing children to the unnecessary risks posed by these toxins, these alert letters have been identified as one of the main factors in raising the levels of lice resistance to insecticides.

The US Public Health Medicine Environmental Groups, now actively discourages schools from sending letters to parents warning of an outbreak. In their guidance notes for school nurses they say:

“Do not recommend the head teacher to send out ‘alert letters’. In fact, encouragement should be given not to do so.”

A number of reasons are given for this often-ignored advice:

1. All schools will have a few pupils with head lice at any one time.
2. These letters aren’t sent out in cases of more contagious and debilitating infections such as cold and flu viruses.
3. It can create the impression that the school is riddled with lice, when in fact levels are normal.
4. Parents can become convinced that a normal itch is evidence of head lice, and decide to use insecticidal lotions ‘just in case’.

We also advises: “Do not undertake routine head inspections as a screening procedure. Detection combing should be done by parents.”

This is because: “The primary responsibility for the identification, treatment and prevention of head lice in a family has to lie with the parents.”

But the majority of schools have yet to heed the advice about sending louse warning letters to parents. And in many cases parents are still being told to keep infected children at home until they can be shown to be nit-free. Advice which again contradicts that from the  “Exclusion should not be used.”