The PBB Disaster

Detroit Free Press:

The story began with a shipping error that, in 1973, sent the dense, manmade molecule known as PBB into cattle feed supplement. Michigan Chemical -- based in St. Louis, in the center of the state -- was producing both PBB, which was used as a flame retardant sold under the trade name FireMaster, as well as magnesium oxide, a cattle feed supplement sold under the trade name NutriMaster.
Ten to twenty 50-pound bags of PBB made it to the now-defunct Michigan Farm Bureau Services operation in place of NutriMaster. It was mixed into cattle feed and purchased by farmers throughout Michigan.
Within days, cows began growing gaunt and weak. Their hooves grew to ghastly proportions. Abscesses developed, and their hides went thick and elephant-like.
"It didn't make sense," said Dr. Alpha (Doc) Clark, a veterinarian who served many of the region's farmers and still operates a low-slung clinic outside McBain, east of Cadillac. "It was like there wasn't a damned thing we could do."
It took more than nine months for the state to zero in on the cause, even as frustrated farmers watched their herds wither away. Once PBB was identified, the state quarantined more than 500 farms, meaning those farmers could no longer sell their cattle or their milk.
Bills mounted. Angry protests occurred across the state. And countless cattle were shot by their owners.
Lorraine Cameron, a state environmental epidemiologist, said the contamination was devastating.
"The Michigan dairy industry nearly went under," she said.
Eventually, more than 30,000 cows were forced into kill chutes near two state-sponsored burial pits, given lethal injections and buried. They joined with 1.5 million chickens and thousands of pigs, sheep and rabbits. Some of the animals had directly ingested the PBB; others were indirectly contaminated, having consumed food partly made with animal renderings from those directly contaminated.

Wow, that is a disaster I'd never heard of.  What a God awful mess.