The LouseBuster eradicates Head Lice without chemicals

from Health and Wellbeing (370 articles)

A-

A+

Page: 1 2 3 4

University of Utah biologist Dale Clayton demonstrates the the latest prototype of the LouseBuster on his daughter, Miriam. The new, chemical-free treatment kills almost all louse eggs and enough hatched lice to prevent them from reproducing, effectively

Image Gallery ( 4 images )

November 8, 2006 Whatever your opinion of head lice, it must be said that they are fair creatures as they do not discriminate by race, religion, gender or social status. Each year, somewhere between 6 million and 12 million Americans are infested with head lice, making children miss 12 million to 24 million school days, as lice have developed resistance to many of the currently used insecticide shampoos. Now biologists have invented a chemical-free, hairdryer-like device they have dubbed the LouseBuster which eradicates head lice infestations on children without the use of chemicals. A study published in the November 2006 issue of the journal Pediatrics "shows our invention has considerable promise for curing head lice," says Dale Clayton, the University of Utah biology professor who led the research and co-invented the machine.

"It is particularly effective because it kills louse eggs, which chemical treatments have never done very well," he says. "It also kills hatched lice well enough to eliminate entire infestations. It works in one 30-minute treatment. The chemical treatments require multiple applications one to two weeks apart."

The LouseBuster is in the early stages of commercial development by a University of Utah spinoff company, Larada Sciences, for which Clayton is chief scientific officer. Patents are pending on the LouseBuster technology, which Clayton hopes will be on the market within two years for use in schools and clinics. The Larada Sciences web site will be live within the next week and the company is seeking international expressions of interest in distributing its products.

"Each year, millions of children are infested with head lice, a condition known as pediculosis, which is responsible for tens of millions of lost school days," the study's authors write. "Head lice have evolved resistance to many of the currently used pediculicides [insecticide shampoos]. … Hot air is an effective, safe treatment and one to which lice are unlikely to evolve resistance."

The device blows warm air through a flexible hose, which has a rake-like hand piece on the end. It apparently kills lice and nits by drying them out, not by heating them. Clayton urges parents not to use hair dryers to try to kill head lice.

"We don't want kids getting burned by parents who think it's the heat" that kills lice, he says. "This thing is actually cooler than a hair dryer, but requires twice as much air flow, and the special hand piece is critical because, unless you expose the roots of the hair, it doesn't work. And it's difficult to do that with a regular comb."

Clayton conducted the study with Brad Goates, a University of Utah medical student who wrote his master's thesis about the LouseBuster; Joseph Atkin, Kevin Wilding, Kurtis Birch and Michael Cottam, all of whom worked in Clayton’s lab as undergraduates; and Sarah Bush, who is Clayton's wife and co-directs the Center for Alternate Strategies of Parasite Removal, a state-funded Center of Excellence working to commercialize the LouseBuster. Clayton, Atkin and Wilding co-invented the device.

How Hot-Air Treatments for Lice Were Studied

"The cool thing about the machine is, it works – unlike many other treatments that haven’t been rigorously tested," Clayton says. "It came out of basic research, completely unplanned."

...continued

Page: 1 2 3 4