Word: pbb
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Meanwhile, fears about toxic wastes continue to grow. Each day more and more communities discover that they are living near dumps or atop ground that has been contaminated by chemicals whose once strange names and initials--dioxin, vinyl chloride, PBB and PCB, as well as such familiar toxins as lead, mercury and arsenic--have become household synonyms for mysterious and deadly poisons. "The problem is worse than it was five years ago," contends New Jersey Democrat James Florio, who as a Congressman from one of the most seriously contaminated states became the key author of the 1980 Superfund...
...Chemical Co.) had dumped and burned toxic industrial chemicals on a 3.5-acre site along the Pine River near St. Louis, Mich. A county golf course was developed beside the dump. By the mid-'60s, fish in the river contained high levels of such known or suspected carcinogens as PBB, PCB and DDT. Working with EPA, the company in 1982 agreed to spend $38.5 million to clean up the area. At the golf course, all soil was removed to a depth of 3 ft. below any signs of contamination. That involved hauling 68,204 cu. yds. of dirt away. Fully...
Occasionally, these chemicals enter the food chain by accident, as when the chemical PBB, a poisonous fire retardant, which was not clearly labeled, was mixed in with cattle feed in 1973--and was eventually eaten by 90 per cent of Michigan. Sometimes chemicals become part of what we eat through negligence, as when the pilots of dust-cropping planes forgot to turn off their sprayers when they flew over houses, rivers and schools in Maine, Arizona, Oregon and several other states this spring...
...parliamentarian and his party's Senate whip. At the same time, Michigan's voters stuck with an able Republican Governor, William Milliken, 56, despite a harsh campaign against him by Democrat William Fitzgerald, who even blamed Milliken for a public scare over Michigan farmers' use of the controversial pesticide PBB. Replied Milliken during the campaign: "It's a terrible thing to pander to people's fears." He finally won with 57% of the vote-his largest win in three elections...
Soble pointed out that PBB is only an isolated example of industrial poisoning. "Almost daily there's an instance reported in the newspapers," he said...