Cattle That 'Look Like Hell'

Ron Thomas is another farmer hit hard by PBB. He has destroyed or sold all but three of his cattle, "but even those look like hell," he said. Thomas said he didn't know how much PBB was in his remaining cows because the state only requires them to be tested in they are going to be sold for meat. If he were selling their milk, the state would test the milk in bulk--combining all the milk in the herd and measuring the level of PBB.

Thomas said he wouldn't sell milk from such sick cows, however. "We milked the cows probably three years longer than we would've if we knew what we know now," he said. Yet for three years state veterinarians told him his cattle were suffering from low protein, or parasites--not PBB poisoning, he said. He added, "Everybody was telling us it was our problem alone."

Although his family no longer eats anything his farm produces, the PBB has affected them, Thomas said. He said his family is chronically anemic and fatigued, frequently suffering from abnormally stiff and sore joints. "We saw the same symptons in our cows," he said. His son, who has been exposed to PBB since he was an infant and has abnormally high levels of the chemical in his body, has an enlarged liver and spleen. The doctor who examined him thought the condition may have been due to the PBB, but knowledge of PBB's effects is so sketchy that no one can directly tie any one ailment to consumption of the chemical.

Thomas and Jones are only two examples of families with high levels of PBB in their bodies. As many as 10,000 Michigan residents may have PBB in their bodies, and the number grows daily. Dr. Norman J. Selikhoff, a pioneer in the science of epidemiology, is conducting a study of these people. Preliminary findings suggested that PBB consumption caused brain disorders in the form of loss of memory and mental lethargy, immunological disruption, general physical fatigue, and changes in bone and muscle fiber: The new study will be finished later this week, but it is not expected to be definitive.

PBB's trail runs throughout the state. Traces of PBB were found in samples of human breast milk in every major Michigan city. Doctors say every person in Michigan has traces of PBB in his or her tissues. No one knows what the ultimate effect of PBB on humans will be.

State agencies in Michigan have exhibited remarkable bureaucratic inertia with the PBB crisis. Michigan officials tried to convince the public that the PBB problem was unimportant. Fred Fry, an assistant to the Michigan Speaker of the House, said "State officials issued press releases consistently underestimating the scope of the problem." Fry added that the FDA encouraged the state to conceal the problem.

The Michigan Farm Bureau, distributor of the grain, has compensated everyone whose herds exceeded the official tolerance level for PBB. The Farm Bureau is contesting in court all other claims, including those of people who believe PBB has caused them physical harm. The first litigation began over a year ago and has not yet been completed.

Don't Drink the Water

Another environmental disaster with widespread potential for tragedy is the pollution of the Hudson River. "The Hudson has been an industrial sewer for decades," Walter Hang, co-author of the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) study on pollution in the Hudson, said last week.

The 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.

He said it would be difficult to establish any definite connection between the pollutants and disease in the Hudson River area. because most of the damage may have taken place over the last several decades. But there are some indications that the toxins in the Hudson have affected the people living along the river, he added. The city of Poughkeepsie has twice the average mortality rate for gastro-intestinal cancer, he said.

Poughkeepsie was the first city to act on the NYPIRG report, setting aside $250,000 for a new water purification system that would filter out carcinogens, Hang said. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has given cities along the Hudson little assistance in coping with the problem.

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 Phosvel floated through the plant. Velsicol ignored warnings from environmental groups and its own medical experts about illnesses related to Phosvel among plant employees. Velsicol closed down in 1975, after federal agencies told managers they planned to inspect the plant the next month.

Workers in the plant have suffered partial paralysis, nerve and brain disorders, dizziness and blurred vision. In Egypt, where Phosvel was imported, the pesticide has caused the death of some farmers, as well as the decimation of farm animals that came in contact with it.