If they're not running from the bathtub shrieking, they're swimming in perfume and there's enough gel in their hair to grease a whale. But parents might want to teach their teens that good hygiene can go too far. The death of a twelve-year-old in Britain is being blamed on excessive use of deodorant.
Now before you go running for your medicine cabinet, Daniel Hurley's usage of the Lynx deodorant (a Unilever brand, it's Axe here in the states) has been ruled truly excessive. He sprayed not only his armpits but his clothes, and was prone to spraying the bottle in an enclosed space - despite warnings right on the can that warn against doing so. Even after an incident several weeks before his death when Hurley passed out in his bathroom after spraying the deodorant, the pre-teen continued to violate the instructions on the can.
Clean air experts in Britain have deemed the product safe - if it's used properly. And that's the real issue here. Once kids begin requesting their own toiletries and often using their allowance or earnings to buy their own, are parents keeping up with how they're being used? I don't remember my mother ever sitting me down to tell me how to apply deodorant. She bought me a stick - probably around the time I started high school (seventh grade at my school) - and said, "It's time to start using this." The tampon talk was a little more in depth, but she left the toxic shock syndrome warnings to the folks at Playtex.
A cardiac arrhythmia caused by a build up of deodorant solvents in a child's system is a one in a million tragedy. Thankfully. But milder reactions to over-the-counter personal care products can cause a simple contact dermatitis or a major case of hives.
Yup, another thing to worry about. Kind of makes you wistful for those bathtub fights, doesn't it?
Image: Medicines2U
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