Beware the milk you give to your child everyday before school and at night is unsafe for drinking.  HCH-hexachlorocyclohexane, an insecticide, which is not good for health is present in the milk, revealed by the study conducted in Hyderabad. Raw milk had been taken as samples from different markets to prove the existence of HCH. Veterinary Public Health and Epidemiology department has conducted the study at PV Narsimha Rao Telangana Veterinary University.

“Lindane is not much in use now and other HCHs were banned long back. A main reason behind HCHs being found in milk samples must be the residues which got accumulated in soils over several years. HCHs do not degrade easily. From the soil they spread into vegetation and water bodies. When the cattle consumes this contaminated fodder the HCH gets accumulated in their fat and gets in the milk too,” says Dr Shashi Bhushan Vemuri, former head of All India Network Project on Pesticide Residues.

Benzene hexachloride (BHC) contained all kinds of HCH and it is divided into various alpha, beta, gamma and delta varities. Previously it was used upto 40 percent of entire insecticide usage. HCH is a ‘persistent organic pollutant’, which means that it can remain in the environment for years together. Gamma-HCH, Lindane is restricted to use by the government in 1997.

The samples of milk tested contains high amount of all four kinds of HCH, particularly delta-HCH, reported the study.

By Premji