BACK-TO-SCHOOL HEAD LICE NOT DANGEROUS AFTER ALL

BACK-TO-SCHOOL HEAD LICE NOT DANGEROUS AFTER ALL

BOSTON (Wireless Flash) -- A Harvard researcher says he wants to end to all the nitpicking over back-to-school head lice. Public health entomologist Richard Pollack says that although the crawly creatures can be annoying, they pose no real health hazard to humans. Pollack says school officials are creating a hysteria over head lice by refusing to allow children with lice to attend school -- even though there's no evidence that isolating children prevents lice from spreading. What's worse, is many school officials mistake grains of sand, dandruff or dried hair spray for lice. In fact, Pollack's research shows that nearly 66 percent of the "lice" samples sent to Harvard labs for analysis were nothing but harmless debris. Pollack claims it's time parents and school officials stop wasting valuable school time by checking heads for lice because the pests "...have been with us since the beginning of mankind and will always be here."