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Monday, April 23, 2007
Source: Billings Gazette
Libby, Montana is the location of what the EPA calls “the worst case of community-wide exposure to a toxic substance in U.S. history.” One of Libby’s major revenue sources was its vermiculite mine, but in 1990 it was discovered that the mine was contaminated with asbestos and that this contamination had exposed thousands of people to the many dangers of asbestos exposure, such as lung cancer and mesothelioma. There have now been over 192 deaths and 345 other cases of people made ill because of exposure to the asbestos-contaminated mine.
The primary responsibility for care and screening for these victims has been The Center for Asbestos Related Disease, a 2003 spin-off from the hospital in Libby. While the Center’s main goal has been the care and screening of more than 1500 patients, the Center is also dedicated to researching new treatments and diagnostic techniques. The Center works in conjunction with other organizations, such as the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation, on a variety of research projects. One of its current projects is studying the actual asbestos-subtype found in Libby, as it differs in significant ways from the most common form of asbestos, chrysotile. Unlike chrysotile, whose fibers are serpentine-shaped and flexible, the type of asbestos found in Libby has hard, needlike fibers.
In 2001 the federal Agency for Toxic Substances Disease Registry completed a study which found that fully 19 percent of the population in and around Libby had physical signs of health-related abnormalities consistent with asbestos exposure.
Labels: asbestos, LungCancer, mesothelioma
posted by Belluck & Fox at 1:52 PM
