Word: toxication
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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...
...NYPIRG study indicates that hundreds of chemicals, many of them carcinogens, have been dumped into the Hudson for years. Normal water purification processes do little to filter these toxic chemicals, leaving them in drinking water. The study found traces of the harmful chemicals in household tap water. "Any amount of a carcinogen should be considered unsafe. We don't know what the threshold levels are," Hang said...
Pesticides provide other toxic horror stories. The pesticide Phosvel (also known as leptaphose) has been banned from use in the United States, but it was produced here for export from 1971 until 1975, by the Velsicol Corporation. In 1969, Velsicol commissioned a testing group to study Phosvel's danger to humans. The group advised Velsicol not to manufacture Phosvel because of its high toxidity and its adverse effects on test animals. Velsicol ignored the report and began producing the pesticide in 1971, providing no industrial safeguards for its workers. Employees shovelled the pesticide into bags, while clouds of dust containing...
...Velsicol Corporation began production in 1976 of another pesticide, EPN, which scientists suspect is twice as toxic as Phosvel. EPN and Phosvel have the same chemical base. The EPA has recommended the EPN be banned from the United States. At present, several major companies manufacture EPN, the largest being DuPont Chemical Company...
Another pesticide that kills humans as well as insects is Kepone, produced by the Life Science Products plant in Hopewell, Virginia. The plant began production of the highly toxic chemical in March, 1974. Within weeks, employees began to experience symptoms of tremors and ataxia (loss of control of some motor functions). Federal health inspectors found Kepone dust thick in the air of the plant, blanketing the floor, and covering tables where the workers ate their meals...