It has been four decades since one of the most catastrophic agricultural disasters in U.S. history unfolded in the heart of Michigan, forcing the destruction of tens of thousands of cattle contaminated with polybrominated biphenyl, or PBB, and allowing the chemical to slip onto the dinner plates and into the drinking glasses of nine out of 10 Michiganders.
Robin Erb of the Free Press reports that as the state starts to scale back its monitoring of the two locations where the animals are buried, the Environmental Protection Agency is gearing up this fall for a massive $374-million cleanup of the Michigan site where PBB was manufactured -- the largest Superfund site in the six-state Great Lakes region.
And a picture is starting to emerge about the chemical's long-term effect on human health, with more research continuing in Atlanta as the cash-strapped state transfers its registry of people contaminated with PBB to environmental epidemiologists at Emory University.
