This pesticide was widely used during the 1960s and 1970s, particularly on cotton plants. Although banned as a pesticide more than 30 years ago, traces of beta-HCH can still be found in water and soil. Animal studies show that organochlorine pesticides, including beta-HCH, are neurotoxic, cause oxidative stress, and damage the brain's dopaminergic system. Human studies show that exposure to beta-HCH is linked to Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease.[3] β-HCH was present in elevated levels in some patients as recently as 2009.
It was manufactured by exhausting chlorination of benzene and for this reason was called erroneously β-BHC. This synonym still persists.
In March 2005, the Italian National Monitoring System on Chemical Residuals in Food of Animal Origin detected levels of the pesticide β-HCH that were 20 times higher than the legal limit of 0.003 mg/kg in bulk milk from a dairy farm in the Sacco River valley. β-HCH, a lindane isomer and possible human carcinogen, was subsequently found in milk from several neighboring farms. A study was therefore undertaken to evaluate the extent and risk factors for contamination.[4][5]
^Medscape Medical News, Pesticide Exposure Linked to Parkinson's, Alzheimer's Disease, July 2009
^Sala M, Caminiti A, Rombolà P, Volpe A, Roffi C, Caperna O, Miceli M, Ubaldi A, Battisti A, Scaramozzino P (2012). "[Beta-hexachlorocyclohexane contamination in dairy farms of the Sacco River Valley, Latium, Italy, 2005. A retrospective cohort study]". Epidemiol Prev (in Italian). 36 (5 Suppl 4): 34–43. PMID23139187.
