X-Rays Ordered For Libby Residents Feds Hope To Discover Why So Many People Are Sick
Federal toxicologists are preparing to X-ray the lungs of thousands of people who lived around Libby, Mont., during the decades when asbestos-laced vermiculite was being mined and processed.
Beyond determining the consequences for miners, plant workers and their families, federal health officials hope to answer one of Libby’s most alarming questions: Why are so many people who never worked directly with the asbestos-shedding ore developing fatal diseases?
The answer also has implications for Spokane residents who lived downwind from a Vermiculite Northwest plant on North Maple Street. Vermiculite Northwest transformed the Libby ore into home insulation from the early 1930s until W.R. Grace & Co. closed the plant in 1973 rather than deal with its dust and asbestos problems.
Vermiculite was mined at Libby from the 1920s until September 1990. The ore was shipped to insulation plants around the United States and Canada, potentially exposing millions of people to the tremolite asbestos that flies off the vermiculite as it is being processed.
Libby had an insulation manufacturing plant like Spokane’s that is suspected of poisoning some Western Montana residents. That’s one reason federal health officials are looking for people who lived within a 2-1/2-mile radius of Libby.
“One of the things we are most concerned about is: Simply by living here, people were exposed,” said Susan Muza of the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, which is conducting the health tests.
“It’s difficult to say what we will find,” Muza said. “We hope to make the call of whether there was a risk associated with living downwind of an (insulation) plant.”
This is bittersweet news for people like Donna Greenup, who grew up in Libby and moved to Spokane several years ago. She is grateful for the testing, although it will do nothing for her family.
Her father, a Libby miner, died as a result of asbestos exposure. Her mother and four of her five siblings have been diagnosed with asbestos-related lung problems.
Greenup, 50, has the characteristic rasping cough, and more and more she depends on inhalers. If she gets a cold, it hangs on for months.
“I’ve gone through all of the emotions,” Greenup said. “When I first heard about it (the disease), I was optimistic. I couldn’t believe the company knew about it and wouldn’t do something about it.”
Time and research have changed her mind.
Now, “I feel like they took advantage of the miners and their work ethic,” Greenup said. “They were willing to sacrifice lives for production of this product … that is still killing people.”
The ATSDR was dispatched to Libby at the behest of Montana Democratic Sen. Max Baucus. It will begin calling Libby residents April 15 to determine who is eligible for the chest X-ray and lung tests. Testing begins May 18.
Results are expected to be compiled by the fall. A community-wide meeting will be conducted to talk about the results.
Among other things, the ATSDR will try to determine how each person contracted their asbestos-related diseases, such as lung cancer, mesothelioma and asbestosis. As well as miners, they expect to find problems in children who played in piles of the vermiculite insulation, people who took the ore home and popped it on their stoves for amusement, people who insulated homes, and even people who cleaned and reupholstered mine trucks.
The testing is expected to cost about $4.5 million. The money is coming from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund budget.
The tests are not restricted to people still living in Libby. Anyone who worked, lived or played in the area for six months before 1991 may qualify. They must provide their own transportation to Libby in order to receive the free tests.
W.R. Grace, which purchased the Libby mine and insulation plant in 1963, expects to be vindicated by the tests.
“I’ve always felt there wasn’t any risk to the people of Libby as a result of our past operation or the mine as it sits there today,” said Alan Stringer, former mine superintendent and Grace general manager in Libby. “I think the ATSDR will confirm what I always believed.”
ATSDR is only testing once. And while any testing is welcome, many Libby residents and medical experts say that’s not enough.
Repeated screenings are the Occupational Safety and Health Administration standard, said Dr. Tim Takaro, of the University of Washington’s Occupational and Environmental Medicine program. “I don’t see how you can justify anything else.”
But even one detailed screening is useful, said Dr. Bill Daniell, another member of the UW environmental medicine faculty. Finding evidence of asbestos damage can be used as an extra incentive to get people to stop smoking. That’s essential because smoking magnifies the risks of lung cancer for anyone with significant asbestos exposure.
The screening may also detect lung cancers, giving doctors a better chance at successful early treatment.
The ATSDR agrees regular testing should take place, but hasn’t determined how to make that happen.
W.R. Grace says it will help provide funding for annual lung tests and cover all related medical bills of people who have health problems that can be directly linked to its Libby operations.
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Testing calls
The federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry will begin calling Libby residents April 15 to determine who is eligible for the chest X-rays and lung tests. Testing will begin May 18. Anyone who worked, lived or played in the Libby area for six months before 1991 may qualify for the tests. Results are expected to be compiled by fall.