PBB: An American Tragedy by Edwin Chen Prentice-Hall 1979 First Edition
Title: PBB: An American Tragedy
Author: Edwin Chen
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Prentice-Hall 1979
Edition: First Edition
ISBN 10: 0136546080
Size: 6 X 9.25 X 1 * 329 pages
Synopsis: From the Jacket: Here, for the first time, is the complete, documented story of the worst man-made disaster in U.S. agricultural history: the contamination of Michigan's- and eventually the nation's and even Canada's-food supply with the toxic chemical agent PBB.
In 1973, a young Michigan dairy farmer ordered a supplement added to his cows' dairy feed to increase milk production. Shortly after, the cows suffered calving difficulties, drastic declines in milk output, and a variety of symptoms ranging from open sores and elephant-like skin to enlarged, grotesque hooves. Soon, farmers all across the state began experiencing similar problems with their animals. Then, the farmers themselves reported marked fatigue, memory loss, loss of weight and appetite, and other debilitating physical and mental illnesses.
In this harrowing book, Edwin Chen tells the story of the major environmental catastrophe that occurred when the fire retardant PBB was inadvertently substituted for harmless magnesium oxide and sold in animal feed to unsuspecting farmers throughout Michigan.
Filled with poignant, compelling individual human dramas, PBB: AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY is more than a chilling, suspenseful account of how a dangerous chemical can seep into the human food chain, poisoning 9 million people and causing widespread illness and social chaos. It also documents a shocking example of how government not only failed to act decisively to protect the people and contain the contamination, but long pursued a course of suppression, cover up, and outright deception-even as the nightmarish predictions of "alarmists" became reality, and PBB in food spread throughout Michigan, and beyond.
Six years after the disastrous mix-up was first uncovered, the suffering continues, and the full cost of the PBB tragedy may never be known-in terms of the hundreds of millions of dollars in lost sales, the cost of slaughtering and burying more than one million once- valuable farm animals, the grants for belated research, the efforts to clean up the environment, and the deep psychological scars left by an experience that disrupted the lives and livelihoods of thousands of innocent victims. The question now being asked is: Is PBB a cancer-causing substance? The mounting evidence appears to indicate the answer may be yes.
PBB: AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY explosively and incisively explores the rapidly growing dangers of our modern chemical-technological age.
EDWIN CHEN is a staff writer at The Detroit News, the country's largest afternoon newspaper. His articles also have appeared in many other publications, including the Washington Star, the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, The Atlantic Monthly, The Progressive, The Nation and New Times. Born in Nanking, China, 31-year-old Edwin Chen holds a journalism degree from the University of South Carolina.
Overall Condition: Good + The book has been read but is in good condition. It has no issues to the cover, including scuff marks, holes or tears. The dust jacket has some wear and is included. The binding has minimal wear. The pages are undamaged with no creasing or tearing, no pencil underlining of text, no highlighting of text, and no writing in the margins. There are no missing pages; see images.
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