The Michigan Chemical company apparently had shipped bags of PBB, a fire retardant chemical, instead of magnesium oxide for inclusion of cattle feed. The feed manufacturer and several government agencies failed to acknowledge and then failed to properly investigate evidence of animal illness on farms using the contaminated feed. Thousands of dairy cows were afflicted and eventually destroyed. Contaminated milk was sold to consumers for almost a year before the problem was identified and milk shipments stopped. Symptoms in farmers and their families exposed to PBB contaminated animal products included extreme fatigue, memory loss, numbness, lack of coordination, rashes, and liver abnormalities.
Rats exposed to PBBs develop cancer.
The herbicide-defoliant Agent Orange gained notoriety after it was sprayed over 6 million acres of Vietnam to kill foliage. TCDD is also produced by combustion of wastes in municipal incinerators, as well as by chemical industries and pulp mills. Schecter reported finding alarmingly high levels of TCDD in the breast milk of American and Canadian mothers. Dioxins are widely distributed in our food supply and are stored in the fat of our bodies once ingested. Elevated dioxin levels have been found in poultry, pork, beef, milk, eggs, and fish.