In a Libby, Montana, which can blame nearly 200 deaths to asbestos posioning, has been declared a "public health emergency" by the Obama administration.
This marks the first ever such emergency declared by the EPA. As such they will provide assistance to the town which has been attempting to clean up the asbestos for 10 years.
In may, officials and mine operators were acquitted by a federal jury for their parts in the contamination.
The Libby mining operation began producing vermiculite, a mineral used for insulation. However this vermiculite was contaminated with tremolite asbestos, which causes the cancer mesothelioma. In other words the mine was contaminating the area, ultimately being linked to the death of 200 people.
Beyond the obvious class action suit, this is a very serious concern. The company has reimbersed people for their medical costs, and agreed to pay the EPA for it's cleanup efforts.
All noble steps.
This is a drastically larger issue than you probably think. When you drink water, even bottled water (it's tap water too) you're ingesting accumulated chemicals from billions of sources.
People urinate out prescription drugs, microbes in the water source, chemical contamination from nearby industry. Sometimes these compounds are in active concentrations in your body.
Another problem with creating a cause and effect, is the number of factors already present in the open system, this cause a 12,000 person town. Causationally the asbestos no doubt has caused an increase in mesothelioma cases. However I just want to make you consider that a certainty is impossible.
Some of those people would have developed a form of cancer anyway. Some residents could live there their entire life, and never get a symptom or illness from the asbestos.
Cause/effect variables are hard to quantify, and harder to prove. I'm off on a tangent. Sorry
I hope the town cleans up this asbestos. After 10 years of ongoing clean-up i wonder if declaring this an emergency is redundant.
Maybe the government is hiding something?
Wasn't it a chemical spill in Close Encounters?
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