Posted By Alastair Mason My company employs mobile crews to carry out maintenance on sewage treatment plants and related assets and it has come to light that they're suffering a considerable amount of insect bites. As a result, a suggestion was made that insect repellent should be issued. This leads on to two queries: First, is it sensible to issue insect repellent as I imagine it is defined as a medecine and therefore there has to be concerns over allergic reactions etc. We do not issue sun screen for the same reason. Secondly, does anyone issue insect repellent and if so, can they recommend a product? Many thanks Alastair

Posted By Glyn Atkinson Along with insect repellants, have your employees any requirement for occupational health checks and innoculations against the effects of insect bites in relation to sewage works and diseases that can be picked up - Hep. B, for instance? Reason for the question - Several years ago, one of my work tasks was to oversee cable removals from a service pit to a sewage treatment plant - got bitten by marsh flies, and finished up in hospital within a day, in isolation for a month, while tests were done to find out the cause of copious trips to the loo. I lost two stones in weight in four weeks, and took a year to recover properly with four months off work, still not being able to safely use the loo in confidence. Some of the treatments and investigations were ghastly and undignified, and the end result is that I now suffer from bouts of IBS at irregular times. This is unpleasant and can knock me back for a couple of days at a time. Couldn't sue the company for injury compensation as they had fully flushed out the service pit prior to any outside investigation taking place - no evidence to show apart from me being very ill. Maybe insect repellant would have been of use to me, but thought that the story was worth putting on here to raise other problems that could relate to this type of work.

Posted By John Webster Neither I nor my wife has any connection with the company, so I can recommend Avon Skin so Soft as the best insect repellant known to humankind. It was never intended to be so, but hillwalkers in the notorious killer midge territory of the West of Scotland swear by it.

Posted By Patrick Burns CMIOSH - SpDipEM - MIQA I do a lot of hill and trail running around Scotland and have been the object of attention to midges and bugs that seem to like to find my blood to drink despite various colleagues stating I don't have any. I was introduced to skin so soft when I ran the West Highland Way Race in 2000 and have used and recommended to anyone who complains of such bites. I have not heard any negatives on it and I believe it is used by the Royal Marines as it is better than the standard issue they get. I would say at £2.50 per bottle it is worth a trial to keep the insect bites down. One word of warning though I am unsure how it reacts if you apply sun lotion over the top of it.