Deadliest Town in the United States?

For asbestos-ravaged town, questions persist

LIBBY, Mont.— Gayla Benefield and Eva Thomson are sisters who have grown used to death. For two decades, they have watched asbestos from a nearby vermiculite mine strangle their parents, Thomson's husband, an aunt, several in-laws and numerous neighbors and friends.

Even though research long showed cause for concern _ up to 70 percent of miners in a 1980s study had fibers in their lungs _ it took news reports about the deaths to drive officials to action, beginning a decade ago. After the cleanup began, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency confidently predicted it would be done in two years at a cost of $5.8 million. Ten years on, the price tag has exceeded $333 million, the deaths continue, and more asbestos keeps showing up _ in schools, in businesses, in hundreds of houses.

The link to the news article:
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Now it's been 20 years, and the town still has not been cleaned up. Four hundred have died and 2000 show signs of sickness with asbestos scarring of the lungs. In view of this, do we have much hope that the federal government will see that the proper clean up is done in the Gulf. Or is it that a small town in Montana does not have the news appeal oil soaked beaches? Perhaps the EPA figures that the residents of Libby, Montana should move somewhere else? Anyway the problems still exist and the asbestos is still there.

Thanks for sharing this.

This town should be the poster boy for Mesothelioma, a lot of people who worked in the mines, ships, ship yards, Navy etc back when asbestos was widely used are now seeing the dangers of this product.

www.asbestosnews.com...

As for the EPA, I wouldn't hold my breath or even count on them to clean up dog shhh on the lawn of their own offices.