The worst case of community asbestos exposure in the nation’s history took another turn this week as the new national healthcare legislation moved through the Senate. The asbestos disaster we refer to is the vermiculite mine in Libby, Montana that operated from about 1920 through 1990. The vermiculite ore from that mine was – and is – contaminated with asbestos. Millions of tons of the ore were shipped to manufacturing facilities across the country.
Thousands of workers who manufactured products from this ore were exposed to asbestos, but the health damage is unknown. The impact on the residents of the Libby area has been quantifiable and a real tragedy. The mine was closed by its current operator, W.R. Grace, in 1990. Since then Grace has taken refuge in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing to protect itself from the hundreds of thousands of asbestos liability claims filed against the corporation.
In Libby, at least 200 residents have perished from mesothelioma, an asbestos-caused disease that is rare. Thousands of others have developed respiratory problems from exposure to the dust generated by mining activities and the milling process conducted with raw ore, prior to shipment.
The EPA has declared the mine and several surrounding properties as a national Superfund site, subject to immediate cleanup and emergency precautions. The people who reside in the area have received medical support underwritten by the federal government in order to identify victims and potential victims of asbestos cancer and related diseases that can take decades to actively develop after the asbestos exposure has occurred.
Now U.S. Senator Max Baucus of Montana has slipped a clause into the pending healthcare bill that provides Medicare coverage for Libby residents and the people in surrounding areas that are known to have been impacted by the mine’s activities. The Senator has, in effect, taken an existing federal health care system and made it available to a small group of Montana citizens who were unwitting victims of years of asbestos exposure.
Libby’s former miners who suffered workplace exposure and current residents who are suffering from asbestosis and other respiratory ailments will have immediate healthcare resources, regardless of their financial situation. It’s a bit of pork barrel legislation that seems to have great merit.
