Supporters of a Michigan House bill that would ban the use of lindane would love it if their legislation would make it to the floor of the Michigan Senate, pictured here, but currently it is stalled in committee. (Creative Commons photo by CedarBendDrive via Flickr)

Supporters of a Michigan House bill that would ban the use of lindane would love it if their legislation would make it to the floor of the Michigan Senate, pictured here, but currently it is stalled in committee. (Creative Commons photo by CedarBendDrive via Flickr)

A bill to restrict the use of lindane, a pesticide used to treat lice and scabies in children, was passed overwhelming by the Michigan House earlier this year but appears stalled in the Senate where Majority Leader Mike Bishop has referred the legislation to Committee on Government Operations and Reform.

“The government operations committee is where things go to die,” said Rep. Dan Scripps, a Democrat from Leland sponsoring the House legislation. “[Bishop] wanted to personally ensure that this legislation that passed with broad support in the House did not get a vote in the Senate.”

No hearings have been scheduled on H.B. 4402, which is opposed by drug manufacturer Morton Grove Pharmaceuticals of Illinois, which spent more than $46,000 on lobbying services by the Lansing firm Dykema Grossett between 2006 and 2008, according to records from the Michigan secretary of state.

Lindane, an organochlorine pesticide, has been phased out for agricultural, veterinary and military uses because of its toxicity. It is a persistent organic pollutant, meaning it breaks down very slowly in the environment. It accumulates in fatty tissue. When used as a lice treatment and washed off, it enters watersheds through wastewater. Lindane has been detected in Great Lakes fish.

According to the Michigan Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics:

Children are particularly vulnerable to lindane. Lindane is a potent neurotoxin, with symptoms form small exposures by ingestion or skin absorption ranging from nausea, dizziness, muscular weakness, tremors, and convulsions. Chronic effects include damage to the nervous system an liver disease.

A broad coalition of health care professionals are backing the House legislation which would require that lindane be used only under direct physician supervision.

The Michigan Department of Community Health does not recommend lindane for treatment of lice or scabies.

More than 50 countries have banned lindane. The state of California enacted a ban in 2002.

Mike Shriberg, policy director for the Ann Arbor-based Ecology Center said his organization will continue to press for legislative action on lindane.

“The majority leader has the choice between siding with the pharmaceutical industry or siding with children,” Shriberg said of Bishop, a Republican from Rochester.

“Our hope is to get a vote on this. We believe that once the senators as a whole are forced to make a choice on this, it’s going to be favorable on both sides of the aisle.

“The science is clear on this. … Everything is clear except for the influence of special interests on the majority leader.”

Bishop’s office did not respond to questions about the legislation and his handling of it.