A global cropland data set with 1¿¿1¿ longitude and latitude resolution has been created by using an advanced very high resolution radiometer global land database with 1 km¿1 km resolution. By using this global gridded cropland data set as a surrogate, global technical HCH usage data for the years of 1950, 1960, 1970, 1980, and 1990 are distributed to a grid system with 1¿¿1¿ longitude and latitude resolution. Usage data for these years versus latitude and longitude and for different continents are analyzed. A centroid analysis of the use trends of technical hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH) for these years versus latitude and longitude leads to the conclusion that the use of this insecticide was undergoing a northward tilt before 1960, a southward tilt after 1960, an eastward tilt between 1950 and 1980, and a westward tilt between 1980 and 1990. Air concentrations of α-HCH, the major isomer of technical HCH, in the Arctic and Antarctic are also compared to the usage of technical HCH in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, respectively. While the ratio between the total technical HCH usage in the Northern Hemisphere and that in the Southern Hemisphere is around 17 in 1980, 8 in 1987, and 9 in 1990, the ratio of air concentrations of α-HCH in the Arctic to that in the Antarctic is around 14 between 1980 and 1981, 9 in 1987, and 11 between 1989 and 1990. This suggests that atmospheric concentrations of α-HCH in the Arctic and the Antarctic have been responding to the technical HCH use in the Northern and the Southern Hemispheres, respectively. This also provides evidence that the quality of the global gridded technical HCH usage presented in this study is reasonably high. ¿ 1999 American Geophysical Union