§ Mr. FlynnTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment his Department has made of the implication for human health of hexachlorocyclomexanes; and what exposure limits there are.
§ Mr. DorrellThe Department has been advised by the Committee on Toxicity and the Committee on the Safety of Medicines and has taken account also of the advice of the Advisory Committee on Pesticides, the joint meeting on pesticide residues—JMPR—convened by the World Health Organisation, and the International Agency for Research on Cancer.
The only hexachlorocyclohexane currently available for use in approved products with insecticidal properties in the United Kingdom is the gamma isomer more commonly known as lindane. Little information is available, and no occupational exposure limits are set, for the other isomers. Exposure limits for pesticide residues in food are determined on the basis of the acceptable daily intake—ADI. The United Kingdom has accepted on health grounds, the ADI for lindane of 0 to 0.008 mg per kg of body weight set by the JMPR in 1989. Worker exposure levels set, by the Health and Safety Commission, are 0.5 mg per cu m of air for eight hours time weighted average —TWA—for long-term exposures and 1.5 mg per cu m of air for 10 minutes TWA for brief exposures. Low concentrations are used as an insecticide in licensed medicinal products for external use.