The name Libby, Montana has become synonymous with asbestos cancer and mesothelioma diagnoses thanks to the town’s history of mining, processing, and distributing natural materials contaminated by the deadly carcinogen asbestos. For years contaminated vermiculite, a naturally occurring mineral which was once “baked” and then used as insulation, was taken from the ground and sold all across the world.
It has been estimated that the asbestos from the W.R. Grace mine in Libby alone was directly responsible for the deaths of at least 400 people—most due to mesothelioma, asbestosis, and other asbestos disease such as lung cancer.
In fact, the damage due to asbestos contamination was so great that many parts of the town itself were deemed uninhabitable. A large portion of Libby was designated as a Superfund site in 2002 by the United States Government and a multi-million dollar cleanup plan was enacted that has been underway for nearly a decade and has yet to reach completion.
Libby has made the news once again for asbestos contamination but this time it’s not the vermiculite that’s in questions.
Word came out late Monday afternoon that federal regulators in charge of ensuring public safety have known since 2007 that contaminated bark and wood chips were being bought and shipped from the Libby Superfund site. The sale and removal of these potentially deadly products went on for three years before regulators stepped in to stop it.
The news broke hard when U.S. Senator Max Baucus received a detailed letter from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) explaining the oversight.
The senator called for an investigation after fears about the safety of the wood chips, which were used primarily as mulch in landscaping projects, arose.
In a statement released prior to this letter, the EPA claimed that these contaminated materials were being sold off by a local economic development official. However, the letter obtained by Senator Baucus on July 14th of this year states that the regulatory commission knew about the process in October 2007.
That was when samples from the contaminated woodpiles were taken for analysis. In a monumental miscalculation the EPA found asbestos in the wood chips but never tested the exact amount and took no action to stop their sale.
There’s no telling how great the danger to public health might be. The EPA’s own regulations state that no amount of asbestos exposure is safe and even one-time exposure can cause deadly health crises such as lung cancer.
Asbestos fibers can often be inhaled or ingested, especially when they become airborne as materials containing the mineral degrade and are exposed to the elements. These fibers cause tumor growth which can go unnoticed for decades—the median latency period between asbestos exposure and mesothelioma diagnosis has stretched to fifty years. Having stockpiles of contaminated woodchips around for years is a perfect recipe for disaster.
A statement by an EPA spokesperson said that the sales of these contaminated wood products were halted because the agency had “new information on the toxicity of asbestos in Libby.” This sounds a bit disingenuous because the toxicity of asbestos has been widely known since the late 1970s and early 1980s when bans were put in place to keep the mineral from commercial products and protect the public health.
No doubt the fallout from this latest Libby controversy will not help to improve the image of this struggling Montana town or put the minds of residents at ease.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 20th, 2011 at 4:58 pm and is filed under Asbestos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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