LANSING-- It all started in late 1973, when the Michigan Chemical Co. ran out of bags for its animal feed. Instead of using regularly labeled bags to package feed, it used plain brown paper bags.
And then the mix-up happened.
Instead of filling bags with feed, they were filled with polybrominated biphenyl, or PBB, a flame-retardant chemical used in plastics. The feed was then mixed in Battle Creek and fed to cattle around the state. Consumers later bought meat and milk from these cattle.
By spring 1974, PBB-tainted meat, dairy products and land had caused a huge scare around the state because the chemical's long-term effects were relatively unknown.
Thirty-five years later, experts and officials assert that PBB left virtually no adverse health effects, but did lead to tougher laws and improved business procedures.
Paul Makowski, program coordinator at the Calhoun County Public Health Department, said the county doesn't test the Battle Creek contamination site anymore.
"We did very regular monitoring of the site for a while and reported the results," he said. "We've never, ever found a problem in all these years."
Department of Community Health public information officer James McCurtis said the department still monitors PBB concentration in the state.
Michael Kamrin, professor emeritus at Michigan State University's Center for Integrated Toxicology, said there were many questions about long-term impacts during the PBB breakout, including cancer.
"If there are any effects, they are small or subtle," he said. "It's difficult because of the long-time evolution between exposure and testing unless there is something very obvious."
Kamrin said a 2001 MSU study suggested some negative ramifications may include weakened immune system response ability, toxicity to a fetus and liver cancer.
But, he said, "if there hasn't been any evidence now, it's highly unlikely that the contamination had any long-term effects."
Ken Rauscher, director of the Department of Agriculture's Pesticide and Plant Test Management Division, said the PBB incident triggered beneficial legislation and agribusiness methods.
"As a result of PBB, changes were made to the Michigan feed laws," he said. "In 1974, the law made it mandatory to code every product so it can be easily recalled by batch. Michigan is one of a few states that has that option.
"We also put an emphasis on the sanitation and manufacturing of animal feed. Animal feed is a direct input to human health," he said.
During the massive national peanut recall earlier this year, Rauscher said the department implemented policies formed following the PBB contamination.
"Safety is its highest priority. We're highly involved in maintaining a safe food supply," he said.
"We've used the PBB incident to see if we've covered all of our bases. Michigan has become a model for national feed legislation."
Jeremy Emmi, executive director of the Michigan Nature Association in Williamston, said PBBs and other chemicals found in pesticides were known to damage bird populations in the 1960s and 1970s.
"The bird populations have just begun to recover," he said.
"Supposedly the chemicals are still in humans from that time period and their children. I would assume that it's still out there."
And Tracey Easthope, director of the Environmental Health Project at the Ecology Center in Ann Arbor, said there are still worries about PBBs.
"Environmentalists remain concerned about PBBs because they remain in bodies around the state," she said. "There may also be contaminants in reservoirs throughout the state. More importantly, we're seeing environmental and health problems with newer brominated flame-retardants. The 1973 PBB incident serves as a cautionary tale."
But Doug Kammann, chief financial officer at the Michigan Farm Bureau, said he has always been skeptical about the possible health impact PBB would make.
"We always thought it wasn't a big deal," said Kammann. "It never really affected anyone. But at the time, everyone was really scared."
Kammann was at the now-defunct Farm Bureau Services Inc., an affiliate of the Farm Bureau, when the contamination took place.
He said the PBB content in the affected food items was minuscule.
Because new instruments could detect miniscule amounts of chemicals in parts per million, people reacted melodramatically to small amounts of PBB.
"We didn't think there was a health issue -- they could just measure small amounts in parts per million," Kammann said. "Parts per million had never been heard of. In our hearts, the Farm Bureau and the state of Michigan didn't think it was an issue."
Kammann said the state and the Farm Bureau worked together to clean up the mess. The remaining PBB was located and contaminated animals were killed and buried in a clay-lined landfill in Mio.
"It was definitely a sad chapter in Michigan. Thirty-five years later, the human body and the land secured in Mio has washed all the PBB out," Kammann said. "It's a good finish to an episode with a lot of overreaction."