From the Magazine | Environment
And Now,Cattlegate
SUBSCRIBE TO TIMEPRINTE-MAILMORE BY AUTHOR
Posted Monday,May 10,1976
A chemical cousin of the PCBs has also been causing problems these days.During the past two years,some 32,000 cows,more than 6,000 swine,1,370 sheep and 1.5 million chickens,not to mention considerable quantities of eggs,cheese,butter and dried milk,have been destroyed in the state of Michigan after they were accidentally contaminated by a fire retardant containing polybrominated biphenyls,or PBBS.Furious farmers,many of them near bankruptcy as a result of the poisoning,have accused state officials not only of failing to protect producers and the public against PBBS,but also of attempting to cover up the problem.
The PBB problem came to light in 1973 when Frederic Halbert,31,a Battle Creek dairy farmer who holds a master's degree in chemical engineering,noticed that his cows did not seem to be eating much and that the herd's milk production had dropped dramatically from the normal 13,000 lbs.per day to 7,600 lbs.When veterinarians were unable to diagnose the problem,Halbert decided to study it for himself.By giving calves feed from half a dozen different sources,he traced the ailment to a product purchased earlier that year from Farm Bureau Services Inc.,a subsidiary of the cooperative Michigan Farm Bureau.After spending $5,000 of his own funds on laboratory tests and long-distance phone calls,he learned that the feed had been contaminated by PBBs that had been inadvertently substituted for a mineral additive.Halbert had to destroy 800 of his cows when his herd was quarantined in 1974.
Cover Up.Since the PBB contamination was discovered in Michigan in May 1974,Farm Bureau Services and Michigan Chemical Corp.,which produced the PBBs,have settled 500 claims from farmers at a cost of $30 million.Some 300 more claims are pending,and even more may be filed.Though researchers have yet to make any direct links between PBB exposure and illness in humans,several farmers claim that they and their families have been affected by the chemicals,and have suffered from headaches,dizziness and sore joints.
Farmers angrily maintain that state officials have tried to cover up the scandal,which is already being referred to as Cattlegate.Gerald Woltjer,39,who has lost 600 cows because of PBB contamination during the past two years,feels that the state agriculture department was indifferent to early reports about PBB poisoning.Other farmers are irate over the department's decision to allow farm products with currently allowable PBB levels to be sold.Says Alvin Green,58,of Chase,who shot and buried 150 cows last November:"I don't think it's right to put this food on the market for human consumption."
Agriculture department officials contend that farmers have exaggerated the extent of PBB contamination,and have used it in a few cases as an excuse for poor livestock management.They also insist they have found no detectable levels of PBBs in any milk,cheese or dried milk sold at retail since June 1974.Governor William Milliken has moved to resolve the dispute by ordering an investigation.But even as the Governor's probers were beginning their work,officials quarantined three dairy herds because of PBB contamination.
From the May 10,1976 issue of TIME magazine
More.from:
Watergate
Origin:1972
Like Buncombe County,North Carolina (see Bunkum 1819),Watergate was a little-known place that became significant in the American language thanks to politicians in Washington,D.C.During the 1972 presidential campaign,it happened that the Democratic National Committee had its headquarters in a Washington residential and office building that was known as "The Watergate" for its location at former site of docks on the Potomac River.On June 17,1972,several men were caught breaking in to the DNC office at The Watergate.What looked at first to be a minor burglary eventually was discovered to have direct links to President Richard Nixon's re-election campaign and to the president himself.During two years of investigative reporting,judicial proceedings,and Congressional hearings leading to Nixon's resignation,the growing scandal of "dirty tricks" involving the Committee to Re-elect the President kept the name Watergate,even though most of the tricks took place in the courts,in Congress,and in the White House itself.
The flood of commentary on Watergate spilled over into many Water- terms,including Watergater,Watergatish,Watergatology,Watergimmick,and Watergoof.But those quickly faded.The long-lasting linguistic contribution of Watergate was a new suffix,-gate,to indicate any political scandal involving a coverup.At first it may have been just a joke; a 1973 issue of the humor magazine National Lampoon wrote of a fictional Volgagate in Russia.But soon there was a Winegate in France,Cattlegate in Michigan,Motorgate in Cleveland,and many others.Two decades later,President Bill Clinton's administration had to deal with Travelgate,the politically motivated firing of the White House travel staff.And the questionable involvement of the president and his wife in the Whitewater real estate dealings in Arkansas was inevitably called Whitewatergate.