Lung Problems Due to Asbestos Exposure

Mesothelioma News

Final Libby, Montana Health Study Shows 30% Injured by Asbestos Exposure

Libby, Montana — September 28, 2001 — About 30 percent of those tested in Libby Montana last year for asbestos–related diseases showed lung abnormalities, according to one physician involved in a study by the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). When the requirement was that two out of three experts agree on a diagnosis, the figure still remained high—18 percent (Montanian Newspaper, Libby, Montana, August 29, 2001). The 30 percent figure is similar to preliminary results that the ATSDR released in February.

The ATSDR study was based on tests of 5,590 adults who worked or lived in Libby, Montana, home of an asbestos–contaminated vermiculite mine once owned by W.R. Grace. Although the mine was closed in 1990, its legacy of death and disease remains. In the study, the rate of lung abnormalities among former Grace workers has reached 48%. Other Libby residents may have been exposed to airborne asbestos or encountered it in parks, schools, roads, and homes. One common route of asbestos exposure was family contact with asbestos when miners wore home contaminated clothing or shoes.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chief, Christine Todd Whitman, has pledged to have that agency clean up Libby. The EPA will continue its analysis of the Libby health risks due to asbestos exposure; then determine whether to list the town as a Superfund cleanup site by the end of October (Spokesman Review, Spokane Washington, September 8, 2001).