Word: pbb
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...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...
During the nine months before government action, humans ingested high concentrations of PBB. Even now, however, PBB remains in the food chain. Floyd Jones, a dairy farmer, said last week, "I've got cattle that slowly die. They're extremely thin right now and they've got pus oozing out of abcesses. They're stiff and lame and not giving any milk, of course. They've been tested and they're perfectly legal to put on the market for consumption." His family does not consume anything the farm produces now, Jones added...
...feed poisoned more than cattle. Cats, rats, earthworms and even flies died on the farm soon after the first PBB grain shipment, Jones said. And it affected his family...