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Gateway on Pesticide Hazards and Safe Pest Management
How To Find Ingredients in Pesticide Products
Beyond Pesticides offers resources below to evaluate the health and ecological effects of specific chemical exposure from ACTIVE INGREDIENTS in pesticide products, as well as regulatory information and supporting scientific documents. Because various pesticide products can contain more than one active ingredient, it is important to READ the LABEL to determine chemical components.
With 192 different active ingredients and counting, it is essential to establish the connection between the use of these chemicals and their respective hazards.
View the step-by-step guide on how to search for the active ingredient(s) in pesticide products below:
- Go to U.S. EPA's Pesticide Product and Label System and enter the product name. The generic product name may vary.
- After searching, click on the chemical ingredients tab or the link for the most recent label to find Active Ingredients.
Chemical List Label List
If one selects the chemical ingredients tab, skip to Step 4 . If not, proceed to step number 3 - To find the active ingredient(s) on the label, search for the page in the document containing the date of registration. Usually, the active ingredients section occurs within the first few pages of the label document.
- Return to the Beyond Pesticides Gateway and search for the active ingredient name in the yellow box to the right or from the list below.
Lindane
General Information
- Fact Sheet: Lindane.pdf
- Product Names:
- Chemical Class: Organochlorine insecticide
- Uses: Head Lice and Scabies, may be found in imported meat
- Alternatives: Least-toxic head lice products
- Beyond Pesticides rating: Toxic
Health and Environmental Effects
- Cancer: Suggestive evidence (2, 26), Yes (21)
- Endocrine Disruption: Known (5), Likely (221)
- Reproductive Effects: Yes (13)
- Neurotoxicity: Yes (7)
- Kidney/Liver Damage: Yes (7)
- Sensitizer/ Irritant: Not documented
- Birth/Developmental: Not documented
- Detected in Groundwater: Yes (4)
- Potential Leacher: Yes (7)
- Toxic to Birds: Yes (7)
- Toxic to Fish/Aquatic Organisms: Yes (7)
- Toxic to Bees: Yes (7)
Residential Uses as Found in the ManageSafe™ Database
Additional Information
- Regulatory Status:
- EPA Reregistration Eligibility Decision (RED) signed (7/2002) and RED addendum (signed 7/2006)
- NGOs' RED comments
- Supporting information:
- PANNA Lindane Program Page (Pesticide Action Network North America)
- Extoxnet Lindane Factsheet (Extension Toxicology Network)
- PAN Pesticides Database:Lindane (Pesticide Action Network)
- Studies:
- Lindane (gamma-HCH) causes reproductive failure and fetotoxicity in mice. Sircar, S. 1989. Toxicology.
- Agricultural risk factors for t(14;18) subtypes of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.. Schroeder, J., et al. 2001. Epidemiology 12(6):701-709
- Cancer incidence among farmers exposed to lindane while sheep dipping. Rafnsson V. 2006. Scand J Work Environ Health. 32(3):185-9.
- Household exposure to pesticides and risk of childhood acute leukaemia. Menegaux, F., et al. 2006. Occup Environ Med 63(2):131-134
- Human exposure and risk assessment to airborne pesticides in a rural French community.. Coscollà C, López A, Yahyaoui A, Colin P, et al. 2017. Sci Total Environ. 584-585:856-868
- Associations between persistent organic pollutants and endometriosis: A multiblock approach integrating metabolic and cytokine profiling. Matta, K., Lefebvre, T., Vigneau, E., Cariou, V., Marchand, P., Guitton, Y., Royer, A.L., Ploteau, S., Le Bizec, B., Antignac, J.P. and Cano-Sancho, G. Environment International, 158, p.106926.
- Genetic Polymorphisms of Pesticide-Metabolizing Enzymes and Transporters in Agricultural Workers and Thyroid Hormone Levels. Sirivarasai, J., Chanprasertyothin, S., Kongtip, P. and Woskie, S. Risk Management and Healthcare Policy, 14, p.3435.
- Pesticide-Induced Inflammation at a Glance. Lopes-Ferreira, M. et al. (2023) ‘Pesticide-induced inflammation at a glance’, Toxics, 11(11), p. 896. doi:10.3390/toxics11110896.
- High Pesticide Exposure Events and Dream-Enacting Behaviors Among US Farmers. Yuan, Y., Shrestha, S., Luo, Z., Li, C., Plassman, B.L., Parks, C.G., Hofmann, J.N., Beane Freeman, L.E., Sandler, D.P. and Chen, H. (2022), High Pesticide Exposure Events and Dream-Enacting Behaviors Among US Farmers. Mov Disord, 37: 962-971. https://doi.org/10.1002/mds.28960
- Biochemical effects of some pesticides on lipid peroxidation and free-radical scavengers. B.D. Banerjee, V. Seth, A. Bhattacharya, S.T. Pasha, A.K. Chakraborty, Biochemical effects of some pesticides on lipid peroxidation and free-radical scavengers, Toxicology Letters, Volume 107, Issues 1–3, 1999, Pages 33-47, ISSN 0378-4274, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-4274(99)00029-6.
- Adverse Effects of Pesticides on the Ovary: Evidence from Epidemiological and Toxicological Studies. Wang, L., Ma, X. and Liu, J. (2025) Adverse Effects of Pesticides on the Ovary: Evidence from Epidemiological and Toxicological Studies, Environment & Health. Available at: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/envhealth.4c00243.
- Proapoptotic Effects of Lindane on Mouse Primordial Germ Cells. Gina La Sala, Donatella Farini, Massimo De Felici, Proapoptotic Effects of Lindane on Mouse Primordial Germ Cells, Toxicological Sciences, Volume 108, Issue 2, April 2009, Pages 445–451, https://doi.org/10.1093/toxsci/kfp027
- The effect of follicullar fluid pesticides and polychlorinated biphenyls concentrations on intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) embryological and clinical outcome. Al-Hussaini, T. K., Abdelaleem, A. A., Elnashar, I., Shabaan, O. M., Mostafa, R., El-Baz, M. A. H., El-Deek, S. E. M., & Farghaly, T. A. (2018). The effect of follicullar fluid pesticides and polychlorinated biphenyls concentrations on intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) embryological and clinical outcome. European journal of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive biology, 220, 39–43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejogrb.2017.11.003