CDC pushes 2 repellents

ATLANTA — After years of promoting the chemical DEET as the best defense against West Nile-bearing mosquitoes, the government for the first time is recommending the use of two other insect repellents.

Repellents containing the chemical picaridin or the oil of lemon eucalyptus offer "long-lasting protection against mosquito bites," the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, adding that repellents with DEET remain on the agency's recommendation list.

"Since West Nile virus is present across the entire country at this point and it's here to stay, we constantly need to be vigilant," said Dr. Lyle Petersen, director of the CDC's division of vector-borne infectious diseases. "It gives consumers a better option to protect themselves."

Both products have been available elsewhere in the world for some time. Repellent makers have been eager to introduce them to U.S. markets but it was hard to compete with DEET, the only chemical touted as effective by local, state and federal health officials.

The manufacturer of DEET, SC Johnson, said it introduced a picaridin-based repellent called Autan in Europe in 1997.

A Web site on picaridin says it also is known as KBR3023, or Bayrepel, a trademark of Bayer AG. The site said it was developed by Bayer, which began research for a new active ingredient in the 1980s, and has been in use worldwide since 1998.

SC Johnson vice president Kelly Semrau said the company won't begin selling a picaridin-based repellent in the U.S. until it's registered by the Environmental Protection Agency and all 50 states.

Federal officials maintained for years that non-DEET repellents were not likely to offer the same degree of protection from mosquito bites. DEET has been the go-to chemical for health officials trying to control the spread of the West Nile virus in the United States.

However, recent studies prompted CDC officials to broaden the recommendations. The CDC says picaridin is "often comparable with DEET products of similar concentration" and oil of lemon eucalyptus provides protection time "similar to low-concentration DEET products in two recent studies."

Consumers tend to like picaridin repellents because they are more pleasant to the skin and don't have the odor that DEET repellents have. And oil of lemon eucalyptus is a natural ingredient, which appeals to those who don't like the thought of putting chemicals on their skin, said Angela Proctor, a product manager for the Cutter line of insect repellents by Spectrum Brands.