FAQs - What is Lindane Anyway?

For starters it is consistently ranked among the top chemicals of concern by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. By any other name, lindane is the 99% pure gamma isomer of hexachlorocyclohexane. It was introduced as a pediculicide and scabicide in 1952 as Kwell by Reed and Carnrick. The Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Encyclopedia describes the manufacturing process of lindane as one in which chlorine gas is gradually passed into 660 part of benzene (a known carcinogen) until 890 parts of the gas has been absorbed. The mixture is stirred continuously and the temperature is maintained at 15 degrees C to 20 degrees C.

The supply of chlorine is then interrupted and the precipitated solid filtered off and dried. In weight, it is found to be equivalent of 900 parts. The mother liquid is then mixed with 330 parts of benzene and the mixture again treated with 890 part of chlorine in the manner described. After filtering the reaction mixture resulting from the second chlorination, the filtrate is again mixed with a smaller quantity of benzene and again chlorinated in a similar manner. In this way, a continuous process for the preparation of benzene hexachloride results.

This benzene hexachloride isomer mixture is then the raw material for lindane production.

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What does the Merck Index say about lindane?
According to the Centennial Edition of the Merck Index, poisoning with lindane may occur by ingestion, inhalation, or skin absorption; possible acute symptoms include headache, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, tremors, weakness, convulsions, dyspnea, cyanosis circulatory collapse. The Merck Index states that "Lindane and other hexachlorocyclohexane isomers may reasonably be anticipated to be carcinogens."

Is there a connection between lindane and seizures?
The proconvulsant properties of repeated low doses of lindane were reported by Joy and colleagues and it has been since this time that lindane has been used as a kindling agent for studying seizures in rats. M.E. Gilbert published her work with rats and lindane in, Toxicology and Industrial Health, Vol. 10, No. 4, 1994, Neurotoxicology and Teratology, Vol. 17, No 2 1995. Gilbert chose lindane for her studies because of its pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properites well characterized in the rat. Those who think it is okay to keep prescribing lindane need to think again!

The United States is one of very few industrialized countries still using lindane in agriculture
and for lice control. Sign this petition to U.S. Surgeon General, Richard H. Carmona,
urging him to call for an immediate ban on lindane.

Visit Lindane.org for more information.

Statement in Support of the Elimination of Lindane Use in North America

In June 2002, the environment ministers from Mexico, the United States, and Canada resolved to develop a North American Regional Action Plan (NARAP) for lindane through the Commission for Environmental Cooperation of North America. The Task Force on Lindane will gather in Montreal, Canada September 28-30, 2004 to draft the NARAP.

We direct the following statement, supported by the undersigned non-governmental organizations in Mexico, the U.S. and Canada, to the North American Task Force on Lindane and the Ministers of Environment and Health from each country.

Background
All three countries continue to allow pharmaceutical lindane use for pediculosis, lice, and scabies treatment. In Mexico, lindane is used mainly on livestock and as a seed insecticide for soil pest control. The 2002 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Re-registration Eligibility Decision allows lindane to be used as seed treatment for six grain crops: corn, wheat, barley, oats, rye, and sorghum. All remaining agricultural uses of lindane in Canada will stop on December 31, 2004.

Findings
Lindane is a persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic organochlorine insecticide. Lindane is banned by 17 countries. It is harmful to the environment and human health. Children are particularly vulnerable to the toxic effects of lindane. Case-controlled research shows a significant association between the incidences of brain tumors in children with the use of lindane-containing lice shampoos. The International Agency for Research in Cancer (IARC) and the U.S. EPA classify lindane as a possible human carcinogen. Lindane is a potent neurotoxin, with symptoms from small exposures by ingestion or skin absorption ranging from nausea, dizziness, muscular weakness, tremors, and convulsions. Chronic effects include damage to the nervous system and liver disease. Worker exposures have resulted in blood disorders, headaches, convulsions, and disruption of the reproductive hormones of the endocrine system.

Lindane is highly persistent and travels long distances via atmospheric and oceanic currents. In fact, lindane, with its isomers, is the most abundant pesticide in Arctic air and water. Indigenous peoples of the north who rely on traditional diets of marine mammals and fish are particularly at risk from lindane exposure through foods. Lindane contaminates drinking water sources. The Los Angeles County Sanitation District estimates that one dose of a lindane treatment for head lice can pollute 6 million gallons of water to levels exceeding drinking water standards. This threat to clean drinking water, and the enormous costs of clean up, prompted California to ban lindane shampoos in 2002. Lindane is highly toxic to aquatic invertebrates, fish, and bees. It is a potential endocrine disruptor in birds, mammals, and possibly fish.

The undersigned organizations call upon the United States, Canada, and Mexico to specify the following actions in the in the North American Regional Action Plan for Lindane, applicable to each of the three countries:

Rapid elimination of pharmaceutical, veterinary, and agricultural uses of lindane, with its use precluded given the availability of safer, affordable alternatives;
Commitment to research and education programs that support alternatives to lindane, giving top priority to preventative and least-toxic alternatives;
Delivery of education programs about the risks of lindane, emphasizing the protection of exposed populations of children, Indigenous peoples, and workers; and
Active support for the expeditious inclusion of lindane among new substances added to the Stockholm (POPs) Convention for elimination as an Annex A substance.

Organizations Supporting of the Elimination of Lindane in North America
Randy Virgin, Executive Director Alaska Center for the Environment Anchorage, Alaska U.S.A.	Pamela Miller, Executive Director Alaska Community Action on Toxics Anchorage, Alaska U.S.A.	Tom Atkinson, Executive Director Alaska Conservation Alliance/Alaska Conservation Voters Anchorage, Alaska U.S.A.
Andrea Carmen, Executive Director International Indian Treaty Council (IITC), an organization of Indigenous Peoples from North, Central, South America and the Pacific Palmer, Alaska, U.S.A.	Shawnee Hoover, Special Projects Director Beyond Pesticides/National Coalition Against the Misuse of Pesticides Washington D.C. U.S.A.	Gershon Cohen, Ph.D. Campaign to Safeguard America’s Waters Earth Island Institute Haines, Alaska U.S.A. Karen Wristen, Executive Director Canadian Arctic Resources Committee Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA
Maite Cortés Colectivo Ecologista Jalisco MEXICO	Mindahi Crescencio Bastida-Muñoz, President Consejo Mexicano para el Desarrollo Sustentable MEXICO	Bob Shavelson, Executive Director Cook Inlet Keeper Homer, Alaska U.S.A.
Erik Jansson, Executive Director Department of the Planet Earth Washington D.C. U.S.A.	Sharon Labchuk Earth Action Prince Edward Island, CANADA	Joe DiGangi, Ph.D. Environmental Health Fund Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.
Bill Smedley, Executive Director GreenWatch Inc. Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania U.S.A.	Manna Jo Greene, Environmental Director Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Inc. Poughkeepsie, New York U.S.A.	Patricia Diaz Huicholes y Plaguicidas MEXICO
Tom Goldtooth, Executive Director Indigenous Environmental Network Bemidji, Minnesota, U.S.A.	Angel Valencia, Coordinator Indigenous Network Against Pesticides Members in 8 countries	Jerry Troshynski, President Alaska Public Health Association Anchorage, Alaska U.S.A.
Jo Behm, M.S., R.N., Co-President Marin Golden Gate Learning Disabilities Association San Francisco, California U.S.A.	Gina Solomon, M.D., M.P.H. Natural Resources Defense Council Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine, U.C. San Francisco San Francisco, California, U.S.A	Arthur Hussey, Executive Director Northern Alaska Environmental Center Fairbanks, Alaska U.S.A.
Kristin Schafer, Program Coordinator Pesticide Action Network North America San Francisco, California U.S.A.	Fernando Bejarano Red de Acción sobre Plaguicidas y Alternativas en Mexico (RAPAM) MEXICO	Clayton Thomas-Muller, Coordinator Resisting Environmental Destruction on Indigenous Lands (REDOIL) Network Vancouver, British Columbia CANADA
Ted Schettler, M.D., Science Director Science and Environmental Health Network Boston, Massachusetts U.S.A.	Irene Alexakos Sierra Club, Alaska Chapter Haines, Alaska U.S.A.	Kenyon Fields, Executive Director Sitka Conservation Society Sitka, Alaska U.S.A.
Phillip Dickey, Staff Scientist Washington Toxics Coalition Seattle, Washington U.S.A.	Aimee Boulanger, Executive Director Women’s Voices for the Earth Missoula, Montana U.S.A.	Clifton Curtis, Director, Global Toxics Program World Wildlife Fund Washington D.C. U.S.A.