I've had Lyme disease and hate ticks, but I just stay vigilante and do good tick check/have a shower when I get back from tick areas.
I'm sure it's "safe enough", but there are too many papers showing reproductive toxicity in mice to make me want to soak my clothing in the stuff.
eg
Zhang, S.Y., Ueyama, J., Ito, Y., Yanagiba, Y., Okamura, A., Kamijima, M. and Nakajima, T., 2008. Permethrin may induce adult male mouse reproductive toxicity due to cis isomer not trans isomer. Toxicology, 248(2-3), pp.136-141.
Jin, Y., Liu, J., Wang, L., Chen, R., Zhou, C., Yang, Y., Liu, W. and Fu, Z., 2012. Permethrin exposure during puberty has the potential to enantioselectively induce reproductive toxicity in mice. Environment international, 42, pp.144-151.
Zhang, S.Y., Ito, Y., Yamanoshita, O., Yanagiba, Y., Kobayashi, M., Taya, K., Li, C., Okamura, A., Miyata, M., Ueyama, J. and Lee, C.H., 2007. Permethrin may disrupt testosterone biosynthesis via mitochondrial membrane damage of Leydig cells in adult male mouse. Endocrinology, 148(8), pp.3941-3949.
Manikkam, M., Tracey, R., Guerrero-Bosagna, C. and Skinner, M.K., 2012. Pesticide and insect repellent mixture (permethrin and DEET) induces epigenetic transgenerational inheritance of disease and sperm epimutations. Reproductive toxicology, 34(4), pp.708-719.
Wang, D., Kamijima, M., Okamura, A., Ito, Y., Yanagiba, Y., Jia, X.F., Naito, H., Ueyama, J. and Nakajima, T., 2012. Evidence for diazinon-mediated inhibition of cis-permethrin metabolism and its effects on reproductive toxicity in adult male mice. Reproductive Toxicology, 34(4), pp.489-497.
Yuan, C., Wang, C., Gao, S.Q., Kong, T.T., Chen, L., Li, X.F., Song, L. and Wang, Y.B., 2010. Effects of permethrin, cypermethrin and 3-phenoxybenzoic acid on rat sperm motility in vitro evaluated with computer-assisted sperm analysis. Toxicology in Vitro, 24(2), pp.382-386.
