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20 Years Later - Two decades after discovery of deadly asbestos contamination in Libby
20 Years Later
Two decades after discovery of deadly asbestos contamination in Libby, the science behind the nation’s worst health emergency remains fraught with uncertainty
The bleak world of asbestos science is tinged with subtle hues of gray and white, barely perceptible shadows that don’t strike the untrained eye as anything abnormal. But for those whose lives and careers are defined by the hundreds of people sick and dying in this tiny mountain community, the reality of the human tragedy that’s been unfolding here for decades is crystal clear.
Dr. Brad Black runs the nonprofit Center for Asbestos Related Disease (CARD) and perhaps more than anyone he sees a clear picture of Libby’s plague — but it’s a picture that muddies the further one strays from the former mining town, and away from its medical professionals who have been charting an alarming rate of asbestos-related lung disease here for nearly two decades.
A doctor in Libby since 1977, Black has been at the front lines of Libby’s asbestos fight, and despite all the fuss that’s been made over Libby in the last 20 years — despite the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s 2009 declaration of a public health emergency, the first such designation since the federal Superfund law passed in 1980; despite the more than $575 million spent in cleanup costs; and despite the well-documented asbestos contamination that’s sickened thousands and killed hundreds — Black is still waging an uphill battle.
“We keep on plugging because that’s all we can do,” Black said recently in a basement conference room at the CARD clinic. “When you have new patients coming through the door on a regular basis, your primary objective is to provide them with care. And that’s what we’re trying to do.”
https://flatheadbeacon.com/2019/01/16/20-years-later/
Two decades after discovery of deadly asbestos contamination in Libby, the science behind the nation’s worst health emergency remains fraught with uncertainty
The bleak world of asbestos science is tinged with subtle hues of gray and white, barely perceptible shadows that don’t strike the untrained eye as anything abnormal. But for those whose lives and careers are defined by the hundreds of people sick and dying in this tiny mountain community, the reality of the human tragedy that’s been unfolding here for decades is crystal clear.
Dr. Brad Black runs the nonprofit Center for Asbestos Related Disease (CARD) and perhaps more than anyone he sees a clear picture of Libby’s plague — but it’s a picture that muddies the further one strays from the former mining town, and away from its medical professionals who have been charting an alarming rate of asbestos-related lung disease here for nearly two decades.
A doctor in Libby since 1977, Black has been at the front lines of Libby’s asbestos fight, and despite all the fuss that’s been made over Libby in the last 20 years — despite the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s 2009 declaration of a public health emergency, the first such designation since the federal Superfund law passed in 1980; despite the more than $575 million spent in cleanup costs; and despite the well-documented asbestos contamination that’s sickened thousands and killed hundreds — Black is still waging an uphill battle.
“We keep on plugging because that’s all we can do,” Black said recently in a basement conference room at the CARD clinic. “When you have new patients coming through the door on a regular basis, your primary objective is to provide them with care. And that’s what we’re trying to do.”
https://flatheadbeacon.com/2019/01/16/20-years-later/
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