Abstract
Accidents happen, and when they do, it is important to learn from them. Environmental accidents are no different. They teach society about the dangers of a chemical or process. In 1973, a chemical company in Michigan made chemicals called polybrominated biphenyls (PBBs) and a food supplement for farm animals. The company made a mistake and sent the PBBs to mix into animal feed instead of the food supplement. The contaminated feed was sent to farms all over the state. The contamination was discovered a year later, after a farmer spent months investigating why his cows were getting sick. By that time, millions of people in Michigan had eaten food (like meat, dairy, and eggs) contaminated with PBBs.
Scientists conducted many studies to figure out the health effects of PBBs. We reviewed these studies and summarized the results. We found that PBBs had some short-term effects on people’s health. They also had many long-term health effects. People exposed in their youth experienced different health effects than the exposed adults. PBBs also negatively affected the children and grandchildren of people who ate food products with PBBs.
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