No doubt NOTHING is perfectly safe. It is for sure that tick and mossie bites are not safe, which is a worse worry than the sheer unpleasantness of the little beasts.
But to put risk on a relative basis, Permethrin 1% shampoo is sold over the counter for lice infestation, and used for children. Elimite is prescription 5% Permethrin creme that is left in the skin for 14 hours.
The concentration to be sprayed on your clothing is 0.5%. It is supposed to bind tightly to the clothing after drying. It does not even wash out easily. I would not be surprised if none ever actually gets off of your clothes and onto your skin. But even if it did, it would be something way less than 0.5% actually making it to your skin, I would guess.
So the risk of all of that needs to be balanced against the risk of endless applications of DEET to the skin, plus still maybe getting some bites on a place that you missed.
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