Neurological manifestations in humans exposed to chlordecone and follow-up results.

Chlordecone is an organochlorine insecticide which intoxicated a number of workers in 1975 because of excessive exposure in the industrial plant. The major manifestations were tremor, opsoclonus, arthralgias, pleural pain, and reduced sperm count. The half-life in blood was determined to be 165 days, but treatment with cholestyramine reduced this to 80 days. Despite initial high blood levels of chlordecone, follow up at six years indicated that in the workers reevaluated the chlordecone had been cleared completely from blood, with very low levels remaining in fat. As the chlordecone was cleared, the clinical manifestations abated, and many of the patients returned to work. Appropriate industrial hygienic and medical management would probably have quickly aborted the epidemic.