Insect Repellant - Active Ingredients & Safety
I did a little research on the different Insect Repellent active ingredients and posted what I found below. Hope this helps my customers understand the different
Active Ingredients, and their relative safety as known today. And Choose to use DEET FREE products when Viral Infection potential is low.
Lets take a look at the Active Ingredients used in popular Insect Repellants, Some are available in Avon Skin So Soft Bug Guard, and some are not.
This Ad Heavy link has good detailed information about these ingredients, If you are interested in reading about them:
Active Ingredients used in Insect Repellants.
The above link goes to a Ad-Heavy website and has basic information about the 4 top Insect Repellant Compounds.
While Deet is the most effective repellent, very few actual cases of harm are recorded, most were from accidental ingestion. It seems that Deet's biggest problem is that it just has a bad reputation, and that
is can dissolve some vinyls, & plastics, and irritate skin on some users. Check out this Deet Fact Sheet for more on any dangers that Deet Exposure may contain.
Deet
DEET ~ is the most common mosquito and tick repellent and “is a reasonable, if imperfect, choice,” the authors write. Registered for public use since 1957, and is the most effective of repellants here.
DEET gives off a distinct odor and may damage plastic, rubber and vinyl. On the plus side, when used as directed, DEET is considered safe by many public health authorities and organizations,
including the Centers for Disease Control and Protection (CDC), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the American Academy of Pediatrics, and The World Health Organization (WHO). That said, DEET is known to irritate the
eyes and in intense doses may even induce neurological damage; though after reviewing reports of seizures, the EPA concluded the rate of adverse reactions to be very low — about one per 100 million persons.
IR3535® – IR3535
IR3535® – IR3535, or 3-[N-Butyl-N- acetyl]-aminopropionic acid, ethyl ester, was developed by Merck & Co., Inc. in the mid-1970s and has been used
in Europe for more than 20 years. Registered for use in the U.S. in 1999, IR3535 can be irritating to the eyes and may dissolve or damage plastics, but poses few other safety risks.
Picaridin
Picaridin, a recommendation of the World Health Organization (WHO) for protection against mosquitoes that carry diseases, is not known to irritate skin and eyes, does not have a pungent odor, and does
not dissolve plastics. It evaporates from the skin more slowly than DEET or IR3535 and may repel bugs for longer periods. Developed by Bayer AG in the 1980s and sold in the U.S. since 2005, picaridin
“does not carry the same neurotoxicity concerns as DEET but has not been tested as much over the long term.” Overall, EWG’s assessment is that picaridin is a good DEET alternative with many of the
same advantages and without the same disadvantages. EWG recommends picardin 5-10 percent for short protection times, and picardin 20 percent for longer periods.
Oil of lemon eucalyptus
Oil of lemon eucalyptus ~ is the trade name for a repellent that originated as an extract of the eucalyptus tree native to Australia. If refined, paramenthane-3,8-diol, also known as PMD, results.
Many products combine oil of lemon eucalyptus and PMD. Some testing has shown that concentrations of 20 to 26 percent PMD may perform as well as 15 to 20 percent DEET against both mosquitoes
and ticks, though its maximum protection time against mosquitoes and ticks is shorter, according to the EPA. Oil of lemon eucalyptus/PMD is not recommended when the risk of West Nile virus
is high or against sand flies or ‘no-see-ums,’ a particularly annoying biting insect. The CDC advises against the use of the oil on children under three years of age. EWG recommends PMD
10 percent for short protection time and oil of lemon eucalyptus 30-40 percent for longer periods.
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Prices subject to change. New Avon, and
Cindy Artrip are not responsible for price discrepancies, sorry.
I always try to keep everything up to date.