Word: pbb
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Michigan residents has been exposed to low levels of polybrominated biphenyol (PBB) for the past four years. A more toxic relative of the federally-banned chemical PCB, PBB entered the Michigan food chain through state-distributed feed grain. Thousands of cattle and 1.5 million chickens have been killed or maimed by the disease. Others have been quarantined, dying slowly of PBB-related diseases. But many animals were sold before the state realized the danger. Over 10,000 people in the state, mostly farmers, now have traces of PBB in their bodies that exceed the danger level for cattle...
...PBB crisis may be the nation's worst. The Michigan Chemical Company of St. Louis, Mich., manufactured a feed grain additive called Nutrimaster. The company also produced a fire retardant, Firemaster, the only commercial product in the United States that contains PBB. In September 1973, several bags of Firemaster were mistakenly shipped with the Nutrimaster to the Michigan Farm Bureau for distribution to Michigan's farmers. Within weeks, cattle throughout the state began to sicken...
...parasites, iodine poisoning and poor farm management. The Michigan Department of Agriculture told farmers withstricken herds that their problems were unique and that other herds did not display the disease. So the farmers sold their sick cows for meat or to be ground into more feed grain, and the PBB continued through the food cycle, eventually reaching humans. Chickens and milk products were also contaminated--chicken through the feed, and milk as a product of sick cows...
Finally, nine months after the initial shipment error, Frederic Halbert, one of the first farmers to receive the tainted grain, had a Master's Degree in chemical engineering, and used his training to pinpoint PBB as the source of his herd's ailments. Halbert, suspecting that his feed grain was impure, sent grain samples to state laboratories. The labs failed to find anything unusual, so he sent samples to labs outside the state, where researchers finally determined that the sample was laced with PBB. The FDA stepped in, setting the maximum level of PBB in cattle at 1 part...
...BEEF ALERT. Michigan farmers, who last year lost thousands of cattle to poisoning when a fire retardant called polybrominated biphenyl (PBB) was accidentally mixed with feed, were faced with a new nightmare. Alarmed by the open sores developing on his cattle and the growing number of stillborn calves, Dairy Farmer George LeMunyon of Cedar Springs called in investigators. They discovered that cattle in his herd, and those on at least seven other farms in the state, have been ingesting a wood preservative called pentachlorophenol (PCP)-probably when the animals licked the sides of their feed bins. Because the preservative contains...