Conference in the News !
By Greg Nelson | gnelson@medianewsgroup.com | The Morning Sun PUBLISHED: May 15, 2023
Five decades ago what has been termed one of the worst environmental health disasters in U.S. history took place. Although the incident isn’t something that should be celebrated it should be remembered. A three-day conference will take place this week to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the PBB (polybrominated biphenyls) disaster that resulted in the destruction of tens of thousands of cattle, pigs, sheep and other livestock due to consuming contaminated feed. It also entered the human food chain exposing an estimated 8.5 million Michigan residents to the toxic chemical. It began in 1973 when PBB, used at the former Velsicol Chemical Co. plant in St. Louis in the manufacturing of a fire retardant, was mistakenly mixed with a nutritional cattle supplement and sold throughout the state by Farm Bureau.
The conference, which will take place Thursday through Saturday at the Wright Leppien Opera House in downtown Alma, is being sponsored by the Pine River Superfund Citizens Task Force, Alma, College, Central Michigan University, PBB Citizens Advisory Board, Mid-Michigan District Health Department and Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health. It is being funded in part by a grant from the Michigan Humanities Council. MORNING –
What is now a 54-acre vacant lot in the middle of St. Louis, once stood the Michigan Chemical and Velsicol Chemical plants that produced various chemical compounds and products from 1936 to 1978. “We want to remember what happened, what are the lessons for us now and in the future, and what do we know about the health of residents,” said Ed Lorenz, an Alma College professor emeritus, task force member and one of the conference organizers.
The event will kick off at 7 p.m. Thursday with a welcome reception, special activities and the keynote address delivered by Dr. Elena Conis, a professor in the graduate school of journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. She’s also a published author, including the book “How to Sell a Poison,” and historian of public health and medicine with a special focus on infectious diseases, vaccines, environmental health, pesticides and scientific controversies.
Among the activities that will take place on Friday are morning policy and community panel discussions. Among the featured participants will be Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 Administrator Debra Shore, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Environmental Public Health Director Kory Groetsch and Joe Sowmick of the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe.
The afternoon will include tours of the city of St. Louis, a farm once quarantined due to PBB contamination, and the former Velsicol plant Superfund site, among others. At 7 p.m. there will be a screening of the 1977 film “The Poisoning of Michigan,” followed by a discussion led by former state Rep. Francis “Bus” Spaniola, Dr. Michele Marcue, the lead scientist of the Michigan PBB Registry maintained by the Rollins Schools of Public Health at Emory University in Atlanta; and Dr. Larry Robertson, professor emeritus for the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at the University of Iowa.
The conference will conclude on Saturday with sessions on environmental law and justice, a history of the PBB disaster and recognition of “PBB Heroes” at the closing luncheon. “We were hoping for 50 PBB Hero nominations and received 51,” Pine River Citizens Task Force Chairperson Jane Jelenek said. The conference is free to attend but a ticket is required for each day. They are available online at the event’s website at http://arcg.is/1LeHHP, For more details email Lorenz at lorenz@alma.edu, Brittany Fremion at fremi1b@gmail.com or Ben Peterson at petersonbl@alma.edu.