Hexachlorobenzene (HCB) was originally used as a common pesticide but was subsequently identified as an endocrine-disrupting chemical (Chiappini et al., 2019). Consequently, the use of HCB as a pesticide was terminated in the mid-1970s and is only used in laboratory scenarios at present (Iatrou et al., 2019;Yu et al., 2019). However, since HCB degrades slowly in natural environments and can accumulate in organisms, HCB residues have been detected in soil, water, humans, animals and plants in many regions and countries across the world. As a consequence, HCB remains one of the largest environmental pol-