Max Did It His Way for Libby

December 29th, 2009. By Hunter West

The final vote on what will be an historic event precluding the passage of President Obama’s health care bill Christmas Eve was preceded by a close vote in the Senate in the wee hours last Monday morning. It passed by the slimmest of margins—and that’s after weeks of lobbying and wrangling individual senators to gain their support.

The Republicans have been crying foul. Other critics say that the bill reeks of political pork and pet projects in exchange for support and precious votes. 

On the surface the criticism seems justified—although defenders point out that a union of states (which is what the United States of America is) remains a democracy and negotiation is just part of the process. True, say the critics—but that kind of stuff just drives the price of health care reform through the roof by advocating for the few, to the detriment of the many.

But dig a little deeper and you suddenly begin to understand…

Senator Max Baucus (D-Montana) is chairman of the Finance Committee and principal author of the health care bill. So one has to wonder if he had anything to do with a cryptic proposal, which The New York Times described on Sunday as ‘inconspicuous’, expanding Medicare to cover certain victims of “environmental health hazards.”

“The intended beneficiaries are identified in a cryptic, mysterious way,” writes Robert Pear in the December 20^th issue of the newspaper. “Individuals exposed to environmental health hazards recognized as a public health emergency in a declaration issued by the federal government on June 17.”

So what’s that all about? At first blush it sounds evasive at best.

Turns out that Senator Baucus has been fighting for a decade to do something for the residents of Libby, Montana—the unwitting victims of vermiculite mining that went on there for decades. The mine is shut down now and the executives of the company that did the mining recently won a court case that tried to pin the blame on them for the health hazards they allegedly helped to create.

And it’s not just the workers and their families who were adversely affected by the asbestos mining at Libby. Anybody who lived in Libby and surrounding area-who breathed the air, drank the water, or ate vegetables grown in contaminated soil.

Libby is sick. The company that caused the sickness is gone. The residents are on their own. The government has done little.

Senator Baucus, who counts the residents of Libby as his constituents, ached to do something for them. To do the right thing.

In the health reform bill, he found a way.

Can you blame him?

“The people of Libby were poisoned and have been dying for more than a decade,” Baucus said. “New residents continue to get sick all the time. Public health tragedies like this could happen in any town in America. We need this type of mechanism to help people when they need it most.”

It was on June 17^th that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) formally declared a public health emergency in Libby, Montana. Hundreds of cases of death and illness linked to asbestos have been identified in the town, once home to the WR Grace vermiculite mine. The declaration covers not only Libby but also neighboring Troy in Northwest Montana.

Libby is not a big place. Population: 2,600. It was 2,800 at one time, but the EPA says at least 200 people have died from asbestos-related illness. “Hundreds more,” says the EPA, “are seriously ill.”

For a small town, that’s a lot of people. And the EPA, in its very first such declaration ever issued, was not yet done spewing superlatives. The federal agency called the incidence of lung disease asbestosis in the Libby area at a rate “staggeringly higher than the national average” from 1979 to 1998. In a 20-year period spanning 1978 to 1998 deaths in Libby caused by asbestosis were about 40 to 60 times higher than what the EPA considered normal. Deaths of mesothelioma were also elevated.

And yet, in May a federal jury acquitted chemical manufacturing giant WR Grace and three of its top executives in a federal criminal case that accused the company of causing—and then attempting to cover up—asbestos contamination in the Montana town. Grace had operated a vermiculite mine in Libby until around 1990.

Somebody had to do something for the people of Libby and Troy.

Max Baucus saw his chance.

To hell with accusations of pork barreling, or defending a special interest. These are human beings who suffer through no fault of their own. Senator Baucus, mandated to represent them in Congress, found a way to help them.

You’d do the same…

Tags: Asbestos, Asbestos Mesothelioma, Libby, Libby MT, Max Baucus, Senator Baucus, WR Grace

This was posted on Tuesday, December 29th, 2009 at 5:25 pm and is filed under Asbestos Mesothelioma . Feel free to respond, or trackback. Read our comments policy.