One Of America's Biggest Underwear Makers Poison Michigan's Food?

Have you visited St. Louis, Michigan, and seen a gated driveway off of North Street?

If you have, you will have seen the former Velsicol Chemical Plant, now an EPA Superfund Cleanup site.

However, Joyce Egginton in her book "The Poisoning of Michigan," refers to this building as the site of "the most underreported disaster I have known in my long journalistic career."

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Did One Of America's Biggest Underwear Makers Poison Michigan's Food?

In this viral TikTok video, user DimeLifting shares that she has uncovered that Fruit of The Loom is responsible for one of the largest chemical poisonings.

@dimelifting Replying to @MapleSyrupMaker #mandelaeffect #conspiracy #fypp ♬ original sound - Nicole

However, she may have had some misleading information.

While it was not Fruit of The Loom's fault, it was the company they bought out in 1986.

What Happened In Michigan in 1973?

In St. Louis, Michigan, polybrominated biphenyls or PBBs were produced by the Michigan Chemical Company, also known as the Velsicol Chemical Corporation.

At the same time, the same plant was producing magnesium oxide, which is a cattle feed supplement.

According to Michigan.gov, this is where things get incredibly messy.

"A shortage of preprinted paper bag containers led to the plant accidentally sending 10 to 20 fifty-pound bags of FireMaster (PBBs) to Michigan Farm Bureau Services in place of the NutriMaster cattle feed supplement. The bags were shipped to feed mills and used in the feed for dairy cattle. PBBs contaminated other livestock as well."

The mixup was finally discovered in April of 1974. However, the PBBs were already in the food chain through contaminated milk and dairy items, beef, lamb, pork, chicken, eggs, etc.

Before this huge issue, over 500 Michigan farms were contaminated and quarantined.

Michigan.gov

So many farm animals were killed and their byproducts were also destroyed.