Congressmen Push EPA to Clean up Town Plagued by Asbestosis

July 10, 2010

Billings, MT Three congressmen from Montana are pushing the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to commit to completing the asbestos cleanup in Libby, Montana, a former mining town that has been ravaged by asbestos-related diseases like mesothelioma and asbestosis.



US Senators Max Baucus and Jon Tester and Representative Denny Rehberg asked the agency to clarify its plans for cleaning up the area, which has lost at least 400 residents to illnesses connected to asbestos, according to the Associated Press. The move is in response to the fears of residents who believe that the EPA is rushing to finish its work in the town.



The congressmen are also calling on the EPA to complete a long-delayed study into the potentially unique asbestos in Libby that was unearthed by the now-closed vermiculite mine owned by W.R. Grace.



Libby is the deadliest Superfund site in the history of the EPA and was the first such area to be designated a public health emergency.



Asbestos-related illnesses like asbestosis and malignant mesothelioma kill

about 90,000 people every year worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.