Well, I have just searched all the lice web pages and they all say you CAN
catch lice via shared hats and clothes although one site does draw a
distinction between head lice & body lice.  So, until I find the other
citation that claims this may be a myth, I retract my earlier statement.  I
would suggest that anyone interested in the topic should insert lice in the
favorite search engine and follow all the leads.  There are some interesting
complications in this issue in terms of which chemicals work, when, how
often, and why or why not.

After some more research I'll let you know.  The reason I am so interested
in this topic is because I once worked at a large institution and was in
charge of a very popular educational program that had up to 100 or more
children trying on hats and wearing costumes every weekday during the field
trip season and for the five years I was in that position (at least 25,000
children in that program all told) we never had one reported case of lice
transmission.  Not one! If it is so easy to catch lice this way I find it
hard to believe we wouldn't have at least one complaint, no matter how
diligent we tried to be with clothing treatment.

Just my two cents of anecdotal information.

Matthew White
Executive Director
American Precision Museum

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