On Tue, 4 Nov 1997, Chris Kinney wrote:
I was wondering if anyone could help me out with resources concerning the case involving Michigan Chemical in the 1974 - 1977 range, where fire retardant was substituted for nutrients in grain for dairy cows.
I live in Barry County, Michigan where the first report was made of the problem with dairy cattle on a large dairy which lost ALL of its initial herd and then ANOTHER since there was enough pbb remaining in the stalls, the fields to contaminate the new herd. Incredibly, that farmer survived and the farm is still in the dairy business. When I contacted the local health department, I discovered that there are very few records accessible on the whole disastrous incident which destroyed many small dairy farmers and contaminated much of the lower penisula via milk, beef, chickens, and eggs. Second generation children show high pbb levels, having gotten it through their mother's milk. The whole story is one of cover-up and denial until a judge finally took on the battle. That judge is now retired in the county seat of Barry County and I may try to reach him. You might try contacting the Detroit FreePress for articles during that period. If you can, see a pair of BBC films of the affair: "The poisoning of Michigan and "The Return to Michigan". old but quite thorough. For information on the toxicology and carcogenicity of the Polybrominated Biphenyl mixture Firemaster FF-1, see http://ntp-server.niehs.nih.gov/htdocs/LT-studies/tr244.html For a qualitative summary, see page 17 of http://www.nutramed.com/zenol/chemicals.htm. Chris Kinney, you seem to be a student at the S.Dakota School of Mines. I trust that if this is for a paper for a course, you will acknowledge the use of the internet to pursue information on this topic. What have you found so far? Ralph M. Deal, Prof., Physical Chemistry, Kalamazoo College, Kalamazoo, MI 49006 deal@kzoo.edu chemweb: A list for Chemical Applications of the Internet. To post to list: mailto:chemweb@ic.ac.uk Archived as: http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/chemweb/ To (un)subscribe, mailto:majordomo@ic.ac.uk the following message; (u)nsubscribe chemweb List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (mailto:rzepa@ic.ac.uk)