A public-health emergency has never been declared in Libby, Mont., where asbestos exposure from vermiculite mining has killed 200 people and sickened more than 1,000 more. But documents and emails obtained recently by Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) show that in 2002, the U.S. EPA was primed to declare such an emergency -- before being talked out of it by top-level officials at the Office of Management and Budget. A public-health emergency declaration would have authorized extensive cleanup and increased health services in Libby, which the feds feared might -- gasp! -- encourage other asbestos-ridden places to demand the same. Libby has been declared a Superfund site, and vermiculite miner W.R. Grace will pay Superfund cleanup costs, but the effects of asbestos contamination still linger. Baucus is "not going to rest" until a public-health emergency is called: "It's a huge disrespect for the law and it's a bigger disrespect for the people of Libby," he says. "It's hard to even fathom."
source: Flathead Beacon
see also, in Grist:EPA refuses to warn homeowners about asbestos exposure from insulation
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Comments
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Tasermons Partner Posted 6:28 am
04 Oct 2008
It's like the bakas who decide to stay in their one-story homes when there's a hurricane approachin' and they've been told to leave.
Not that we shouldn't help 'em, but when they stay behind in a disaster zone of they're own will, they're not exactly "innocent" victims.
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guade00 Posted 8:00 am
04 Oct 2008
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Tasermons Partner Posted 9:09 am
04 Oct 2008
Mining is dirty, and because it's mining, that means it's a mineral(s), and thus is non-renewable.
Which means eventually it'll run out.
It always just frustrates me how these towns know that mining is a dirty operation and that it won't last forever, but they completely ignore those facts until it gets so bad or until the mines close down.
They don't think ahead, have little foresight, never wonder 'bout what'll happen to the town once the mines close.
They never take any measures to prevent the actions from occurin'.
And when it finally does happen, then they feel frustrated and start to complain.
Funny how they usually don't complain when they benefitted from it before.
I'm not sayin' they don't deserve help. All I'm sayin' is that a whole lot less of the towns would need as much help if they'd thought ahead and tried to help themselves to begin with.
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cce Posted 3:30 am
05 Oct 2008
And no, dying of asbestosis is not something that they "should've seen coming." They were repeatedly lied to.
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Tasermons Partner Posted 12:38 pm
05 Oct 2008
The town had been mining vermiculite since the 1920s. And almost right afterwards, people started to get sick. The mine worked without any environmental or industrial regulations til the 1960s (did they think there was nothin' wrong?). And even after that, it was common knowledge in the town that people regularly faced health problems that were less common outside the town. Hundreds reportedly died from it over the years.
Still, it was the town's main employer, so very few complained, and the ones that did got the run-around.
But the effects of the mine were common knowledge.
The only people who were truly duped were the millions who bought Zonolite insulation. They had little way of knowin' the adverse health effects.
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JohnS Posted 4:18 am
06 Oct 2008
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