The answer

The UK drug regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), recently issued a warning to pharmacists about the risk of headlice products catching fire. Anyone who is applying such treatments, or who has them on their hair, should be told to stay away from open flames or any other sources of ignition (for example, lit cigarettes, gas cookers and candles) until hands and/ or hair have been thoroughly washed so that no trace of the product remains. These warnings are detailed in patient information leaflets.

The reason for this advice being issued is the number of cases involving serious burns that have been reported to the MHRA. Since Hedrin was licensed in 2005, the regulator has been informed of eight separate cases, five associated with cigarettes, two with gas fires and one with a candle. There have been a further two cases associated with other headlice products, one in which a woman sustained serious burns when smoking, and a second – only last year – involving a child.