Michigan’s PBB Disaster: Finding New Ways to Commemorate Large-scale Environmental Disasters

In 1973, Michigan Chemical Company accidentally shipped a fire retardant (polybrominated biphenyl or PBB) in place of a nutritional supplement to a livestock feed mill, which resulted in one of the largest episodes of contamination in US history. Researchers estimate that eight million people were exposed to PBB. This report from the field explores the ways in which community members with public and academic partners documented and shared this history, finding new ways to commemorate environmental disasters. The evolving and collaborative nature of this work highlights the multiple and fluid forms commemoration can take, providing an example and rationale for how the PBB disaster and other large-scale contaminations might be commemorated.