Commentary
by Ken Winter
Ken Winter. Image: Dome Magazine
Truth is that even today no one is sure what the effect has been on millions of Michiganders who consumed poison-laced milk, beef and poultry after the accidental statewide distribution of the fire retardant PBB during 1973.
One of Michigan’s worst agricultural disasters continues to make headlines some 40 years after it decimated 500 Michigan dairy and cattle farms, one Michigan city, and blemished an otherwise nearly spotless career of former Governor William G. Milliken, Michigan’s longest serving governor.
The disaster started in the early 70s, when a man-made chemical fire retardant, Firemaster BP-6, produced by the Michigan Chemical Company (purchased by Velsicol) of St. Louis, Mich. was accidentally misbagged and distributed by Michigan Farm Bureau as a cattle livestock feed and then unknowingly distributed to farms across the state and Midwest.
Some 1.5 million chickens, 30,000 cattle, 5,900 pigs and 1,470 sheep then consumed the feed and became contaminated with PBBs. More than 500 farms had to be quarantined across Michigan. Additionally, 1.5 million chickens were destroyed, along with over 800 tons of animal feed, 18,000 pounds of cheese, 2,500 pounds of butter, 5 million eggs, and 34,000 pounds of dried milk products were destroyed. Over 9 million Michiganders consumed potentially tainted meat and milk for a year after the mistake of PBB was found in the animal feed.
The disaster pitted the popular governor against one of the state’s strongest lobbies, the Michigan Farm Bureau, that eventually led to the downfall of the directors of Michigan Department of Agriculture and the Michigan Department of Health.
University researchers now suggest lingering health effects remain in countless Michiganders, who consumed milk and beef with (Polybrominated BiPhenyl). PBB might still carry high levels in their bodies, 10 times the national average. The Detroit Free Press reports the study will appear this month in the environmental sciences journal, Chemosphere.
“To see the lab reports are both chilling and confirming,” Mason resident Pat Bayer, recently told the Detroit Free Press. She is one of those whose PBB levels are about 10 times the national average.
The possibly now links PBB to a newborn’s health (showing lower Apgar scores–the first measure of a baby’s health) and possible disruption of human endocrine systems, as well as liver, kidneys and thyroid gland. Research stills falls short of proving the link. However, these studies are ongoing and adverse reproductive-system effects continue to be found in the grandchildren of those who consumed tainted farm products, according to recent research reports.
Cattle quickly withered to mere skeletons, died and were buried in specially lined landfill environmentally safe and monitored sites throughout Michigan; some were shipped to Death Valley, Nevada for burial.
A 40-acre Gratiot County landfill located near St. Louis, Michigan, had received 269,000 lbs. of wastes containing 60% to 70% PBBs between 1971 and 1973. Recently drilled test wells show traces of PBBs in the aquifer in all directions. Since 1998, the EPA and MDEQ have been working on the cleanup of the Pine River in St. Louis, which has required over $100 million in funding that included installation of sheet piling, dewatering and dredging operations. Restoration work continues as a fishing ban also remains in place.
At first, state agriculture and health officials denied reports of any mishap. Some farmers had agents of the Department of Agriculture come out to their farms to investigate. The agents would brush the farmers off telling them it was because of “bad husbandry”. The Michigan Milk Messenger, a Michigan Milk Producers trade publication, blasted the weekly Charlevoix (Mi.) Courier for its extensive 1973-74 coverage reporting a neighboring dairy farmer’s herd was dying, as well other are farmers beginning to report mysterious deformities of their cattle, who were having grotesquely deformed and stillborn claves.
Local Charlevoix and Antrim County dairy farmers joined together protesting the newspaper’s coverage telling the public their milk was safe to drink, by boycotting the newspaper, canceling their subscriptions and encouraging retailers and businesses to quit advertising because the stories did nothing but hurt the local economy and their dairy and meat business.
The Courier eventually uncovered a secret 8-month study being conducted on afflicted PBB farm families by the Michigan Departments of Health and Agriculture. State officials, who eventually confirmed the study, told the Courier they didn’t want to bias the study by making it public. The news made the front page of the Charlevoix Courier and then was reprinted in The Grand Rapids Press and other Michigan Booth Newspapers, catching Gov. Milliken off-guard and forcing him to hold a hastily called press conference to deal with the issue. As one blogger recently reminisced, “The State of Michigan realized there was a problem and they quickly realized the monstrosity of it all. They didn’t know how to properly handle the situation as nothing like this had happened before in the United States.”
Politically powerful Farm Bureau president Elton Smith, a Caledonia dairy farmer, called upon the media to report the other side of the farmer’s story on PBB. He also took Governor Milliken head on over the acceptable tolerance level of PBB in milk.
“Many of Michigan Farm Bureau’s usual allies have seen fit to oppose our positions,” he opined in the Farm Bureau’s newspaper, Michigan Farmer, in April 1977.
“The governor supports lower PBB tolerance levels for what we believe are political reasons. The news media, because of its very nature, dwells on the emotional and sensational rather than the scientific and logical. The Legislature also fails to utilize available data to make its decisions, bending instead to the pressure of emotion and politics.”
Dr. B. Dale Ball, then Director of the Michigan Department of Agriculture, joined the Michigan farmers opposing Gov. Milliken in an unscheduled visit to a Farm Bureau information Lansing meeting of 400 County Farm Bureau leaders, explaining his department felt there was no need to go below the FDA established guideline of .3 parts per million tolerance level.
Smith said he “was disappointed Governor Milliken, who has a long and admirable record of support for Michigan agriculture, disregarded the scientific testimony presented in at the PBB tolerance level hearing…”
He was referring to testimony given by the Federal Food and Drug Administration’s Dr. Albert Kolbye to the House of Representatives Committee on Public Health that evidence showed that the present Michigan food supply did not present a risk to public health. The farm leader claimed that Milliken instead of using the testimony to restore consumer confidence in Michigan farm products, urged U.S. Senator Don Riegle to the convince the FDA to lower tolerance levels. In a letter to Riegle, Milliken said he had directed state agencies to cooperate with the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Science and Space as it conducted hearing on the PBB problem.
Research continues at Emory University in Atlanta with the Michigan Department of Community Health from funding that comes partially from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
The Detroit Free Press reports “researchers hope that their latest findings–high levels of PBB remain in Michiganders’ bodies and the link between PBB levels and newborns’ Apgar scores–will trigger to continue the work.”
Mason’s Pat Bayer says they can’t stop looking at the PBB issue as it’s too important.
This commentary originally appeared online in Dome Magazine. Ken Winter, former editor and publisher of the Petoskey News-Review and member of the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame, teaches political science and journalism at North Central Michigan College in Petoskey and Michigan State University.