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or pestered by pesky pests, but before you reach
    for the nearest bottle of bug repellant, consider this: Are chemical bug
    repellents your best option? Sure they’ll keep the bugs away, but at what
    cost?
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    100 Perks of Having Cancer
    Bug repellents are different from insecticides in that repellents don’t kill
    bugs; they just make them stay away from you. The one popular chemical
    you will find in most repellents is DEET. DEET—short for N,N-diethyl-meta-
    toluamide—is found in more than 240 different products used to repel mos-
    quitos and other flying insects.
    DEET was developed in the United States in 1946 by the U.S. army to
    be used in the jungles of Africa and Korea. The army was looking for a solu-
    tion to repel disease-ridden mosquitos, and their chemists found it. They’re
    not even sure exactly how it works, but the thought is that it has
    something to do with blocking the scent of certain substances in
    human sweat and making us invisible to bugs.
    DEET is labeled as a “Class III” in the EPA’s toxicity classifica-
    tion, which means it is “slightly toxic.” (Kinda like being “slightly
    pregnant”?) It should be noted that this chemical does not just
    stay on your skin where it is applied. DEET is absorbed into your
    bloodstream and travels through all of your body’s organs—heart, lungs,
    kidneys, liver, and brain—before it is excreted in your urine.
    According to the National Pesticide Information Center:
    Researchers applied technical grade DEET, and DEET formulated in a
    15% ethanol solution, to the forearm skin of male human volunteers for
    an 8-hour exposure period. DEET was absorbed within two hours after
    application and absorption continued at a constant rate over the 8-hour
    exposure period.
    DEET was approved for public use ten years after the army created it.
    Since there was no Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) at the time,
    there were no public safety standards for these types of chemicals. When
    approval was finally granted in 1998, the approval for use by the public was
    given only when the EPA considered that public DEET use would be “brief
    . . . and not long-term.” The EPA did not clarify what “brief” use was. Put
    it on for one hour, and then wash it off? Only use it every third day? It was
    not really made clear.
    DEET melts plastics, polyester, leather, and other materials on contact.
    (You may want to read that again.) There are cases of sunglasses and GPS
    screens melting with DEET exposure.
    Perk #3: Cancer Made Me Really Appreciate the Good Days
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    While cancer is not currently a concern in relation to DEET (and neither
    was asbestos at the time of its early use), DEET has been shown to cause
    neurotoxicity symptoms in some that include tremors and seizures. There
    have also been cases of extremely low blood pressure and low heart rates
    as well with topical application of DEET. Currently, products containing 30
    percent DEET or more are banned in Canada and cited as having multiple
    health risks.
    So you don’t want to apply the DEET directly to your skin, and you think
    that using the new “clip on” fan devices would be a better choice? Actually
    they aren’t. Breathing the vapors of metofluthrin, the chemical ingredient
    in the “fan type” bug repellants, is just as harmful and carries the same risk
    of seizures and nerve toxicity as the spray-on DEET. But the metofluthrin
    also carries a cancer risk. It’s a small risk, but liver tumors were seen in tested
    animal populations.
    The odd thing is, the directions for these devices say: “Clip the unit to
    your belt, pants/shorts waistband, purse, or any other convenient location
    next to you [or] place the unit next to you on a table.” But the precautions
    on the label say: “Harmful if inhaled. Avoid breathing vapors, mist or gas.”
    Confused? Yeah, me, too. If it’s clipped to me, I would imagine that I can’t
    help but breathe this stuff in.
    On a side note, but