[DallasGG]

Insect repellents and multiple myeloma

by DallasGG on Wed Aug 10, 2016 9:19 am

Lately, Zika has been in the news alot. I live in Texas and mosquitos also carry West Nile Virus here. There is little or no proof that multiple myeloma is caused by chemical exposure but there is a belief that there may be some connection.

Several years ago I used an insect repellent with Deet in it and had a reaction where my skin turned bright red. After that, I was a little leary of using insect repellents.

My question is...are any of you concerned about using insect repellents and perhaps making our multiple myeloma conditions worse? Are you avoiding insect repellent use because of your multiple myeloma diagnosis?

[kshornb]

Re: Insect repellents and multiple myeloma

by kshornb on Wed Aug 10, 2016 11:45 am

Hi Kent:

Thank you so much for this post, I have also been thinking about this issue recently. I live in Maryland, and we also have a lot of mosquitoes, but fortunately no Zika has been found here, but we do have West Nile virus, along with other not so fun viruses, like Rocky Mountain spotted fever.

I do believe that there is a possible connection between pesticides, and potentially insecticides, being a contributing factor to cancers, including multiple myeloma. So recently when I went shopping for insect spray, I made sure that it did not have DEET in the ingredients. The EPA and CDC have lists of insect repellent products that do not have DEET, that may work just as well for you.

In my opinion (not substantiated by research), I would not use something with DEET, just to err on the side of caution.

Kathleen