benzene hexachloride

noun

Chemistry.

1. BHC.

benzene hexachloride

noun

1. another name for hexachlorocyclohexane

benzene hexachloride

1. A musty-smelling crystalline substance that was once used as an insecticide. It is prepared by adding chlorine to benzene. Also called lindane. Chemical formula: C ₆ H ₆ Cl ₆ .

Word History and Origins

Origin of benzene hexachloride¹

First recorded in 1880–85

Example Sentences

Is it coincidence, then, that benzene hexachloride and its relative, lindane, are known through repeated observations to double the chromosomes in experimental plants — and that these same chemicals have been implicated in many well-documented cases of fatal anemias?

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Yet this chemical, a form of benzene hexachloride, is much used in vaporizers, devices that pour a stream of volatilized insecticide vapor into homes, offices, restaurants.

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Where pesticides are involved, the chemicals that figure most prominently in the case histories are DDT, lindane, benzene hexachloride, the nitrophenols, the common moth crystal paradichlorobenzene, chlordane, and, of course, the solvents in which they are carried.

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The farmer had treated about 60 acres of land with a dust containing DDT and benzene hexachloride.

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Benzene hexachloride persists at least eleven years; heptachlor or a more toxic derived chemical, at least nine.

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