The peripheral neurotoxicity of lindane was studied in vitro on mouse phrenic-diaphragm preparation. The experiments were performed on normal and denervated preparations. Twitches evoked by direct or indirect electrical stimulations and contractions evoked by external application of cholinergic agonists were compared in the presence or absence of lindane in the bath medium. Histochemical localizations of calcium were made on fibers after chemical stimulations. The results indicated that, at the normal endplate or at extrajunctionnal sites after denervation, there was a change in the intracellular Ca2+ distribution in response to external application of concentrated cholinergic agonists. This modification caused a transient contracture and could be visualized either by 45Ca autoradiography or by Alizarin Red S intracellular precipitations. Lindane inhibited the ACh-dependent contracture (I50 less than 10(-5) M) and suppressed the histochemical localizations of calcium. These lindane effects were observed on both normal and denervated muscles. It was concluded that lindane inhibited the Ca2+ influx presented by the desensitized ACh-sensitive areas of the muscle.