After a 15-year wait, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has finally released the results of a health risk study, which will assist in guiding the asbestos cleanup efforts in the Libby region.
Area residents were exposed to asbestos contamination through the activities of W. R. Grace, a defunct local company that owned a vermiculite mine and a processing plant. For decades, the company polluted the air, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of Libby locals. To this day, despite Grace’s closure, Libby residents continue to be affected by the toxin; some asbestos-related diseases, such as mesothelioma, have lengthy latency periods, and are thus not diagnosed for many years.
Despite the lingering health effects, the region is much safer now. “EPA has spent a great deal of time doing cleanups in town,” said Dr. Deborah McKean, toxicologist for the agency. “The air is significantly cleaner than when the mine had been operating from the early ’60s to 1990.” In fact, according to the EPA’s tests, the concentration of airborne asbestos in Libby is 100,000 times less than it was when Grace was still in business.
“We’ve done this work to ensure the best-quality science has been used and that the number has received sufficient levels of review to ensure that the decisions that we make have the highest standards,” added Dr. McKean.
The EPA’s approach has had its critics, as well. Ms. Gayla Benefield, an outspoken Libby resident, felt that more could have been done. “They would leave the carpets in the house and consider it clean, but if those carpets are pulled up, the fiber’s trapped under the carpet,” she said. “If the house is sold, the next person is going to encounter this. I don’t think it’s close to anywhere where it should be. We won’t know that for 30 or 40 years.”
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