Libby clinic receives $10 million grant for screenings

HELENA, Mont. — U.S. Sen. Max Baucus says a clinic in Libby, Mont., has secured a $10 million, four-year federal grant to screen people for asbestos-related disease. The Montana Democrat announced Monday that the Center for Asbestos Related Disease, also known as the CARD clinic, had been awarded the competitive grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The grant will allow the clinic to continue to provide free screenings for people in town and also hold screenings across the nation for those exposed to asbestos in Libby. More than 1,750 people from the Libby area have been diagnosed with potentially fatal asbestos-related diseases, straining efforts to provide medical services there. The northwestern Montana town is where a W.R. Grace vermiculite mine released asbestos that contaminated hundreds of households, businesses and forests.