EPA Steps in to Help Asbestos and Mesothelioma Victims in Montana

Washington, DCMesothelioma may not be as familiar a term as cancer, leukemia or HIV—but its effects are no less devastating. So much so that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) this month used it's authority to invoke a public health declaration for the first time in its history in an effort to aid victims of mesothelioma cancer and asbestos mesothelioma in northwest Montana.

In an ironic twist of fate, it was only six weeks ago that W.R. Grace, together with three of its executives were acquitted on charges of withholding information about the dangers of the W.R. Grace vermiculite mine.

However, according to the position taken by the EPA, no one is arguing about the dangers themselves.

According to a story that appeared June 18th 2009 in the Washington Post the EPA, the day prior declared a public health emergency—the first time the EPA had invoked that power since the authority was granted in 1980—in an effort to aid the various workers and their families tied for so many years to the W.R. Grace mine located in Libby, Montana.

The public health declaration applies to both Libby and nearby Troy, which have combined populations of about 3,900. Among that group, the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has identified an estimated 500 persons as having asbestos-related illness such as lung cancer and asbestosis, with 50 new cases diagnosed each year.

The EPA has been authorized to provide $6 million in funding. That amount seems like a drop in the bucket when compared with the $46 million the DHHS has spent over the past ten years funding diagnostic screening programs and various other efforts to improve health care in the stricken communities.

This new round of funding will go directly to patients, according to a DHHS spokesperson.

"If something's not covered, there's a place you can go where it can be," said department spokeswoman Jenny Backus in comments published in the Washington Post. She further commented that it was not clear what funding would be given to the program beyond this year.

The W.R. Grace vermiculite mine has proven to be a lightning rod of controversy in recent years. The mine has been closed for some time, but the fallout remains from a mine that has operated for most of the 20th century and operated by W.R. Grace from 1963 until the mine closed for good in 1990. Even though the mine has been closed for nearly 20 years, new cases of asbestos-related disease are diagnosed every year amongst the small population.

That's because asbestos-related diseases such as mesothelioma have long latency periods that can run thirty years or longer from the time of initial exposure to asbestos. Worse still, is the realization that some of the new asbestosis, mesothelioma cancer and other asbestos-related diseases are in children and family members (of workers) who have never set foot in a mine.

There have been documented cases where asbestos fibers have migrated from the workplace to worker's homes on their work clothes, extending the swath of exposure and putting workers' families at risk.

Regardless of the outcome of the W.R. Grace trial earlier this spring, the EPA funding is further acknowledgment that asbestos is bad stuff. According to the Washington Post the money is intended to pay for stricken residents' health care—including things that an individual's existing health insurance plan will not pay for. For those stricken residents with no health insurance at all, the EPA funding will pay the full freight.

"For way too long, many here in Washington have turned a blind eye to the needs of the residents in Libby," said Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.
"Those days are over."

As part of the June 17th announcement of the EPA funding, Democratic Senator Max Baucus from Montana shared the story of a longtime worker with the W.R. Grace mine who died of asbestos-related issues. Worse, was the fact the worker carried asbestos-laden dust home to his family, sickening his wife and two children in the process.

The vermiculite mined for so many decades at the W.R. Grace mine in Libby, Montana was contaminated with a toxic form of asbestos.

"I don't think anybody escaped from the exposure," said fellow Montana senator Jon Tester (D) in an interview published in the Washington Post. "Nearly every family, if not every family, that was exposed to it has some health issues."

The EPA funding will help victims of asbestos mesothelioma and other asbestos-related disease with their health care. However, no amount of funding will turn back the clock against an incurable disease like asbestos mesothelioma cancer. Once a diagnosis of asbestos mesothelioma has been confirmed, the clock starts ticking towards an uncertain future and almost certain death.