1. Asbestos and Mesothelioma

2. Table of Contents
Introduction.............................................................................................................4
Section I: Asbestos.................................................................................................6
Asbestos: A Brief History....................................................................................6
Asbestos Exposure...........................................................................................11
Asbestos Exposure Profiles..............................................................................14
Occupational..................................................................................................14
Exposure at Home, School and Play.............................................................20
Natural Exposure...........................................................................................25
Special Section: World Trade Center 9/11....................................................33
Special Section: Libby, Montana...................................................................38
Section II: Mesothelioma and Other Asbestos-induced Diseases.......................44
Major Diseases..................................................................................................44
Mesothelioma................................................................................................44
Progression of Mesothelioma........................................................................68
Other Asbestos-induced Cancers..................................................................83
Asbestosis......................................................................................................94
Minor Diseases................................................................................................103
Epidemiology of Asbestos-related Diseases..................................................109
Major Diseases............................................................................................111
Minor Diseases............................................................................................113
Section III: Dealing with Asbestos......................................................................115
Asbestos Regulation.......................................................................................115
Asbestos In The Workplace............................................................................122
Asbestos in Homes, Schools, and Public Places...........................................127
Section IV: Dealing with Mesothelioma and Other Asbestos-induced Diseases135
Obtaining a Diagnosis.....................................................................................135
Obtaining Medical Care...................................................................................140
Finding a Doctor..........................................................................................140
Treatment Regimes for Asbestos Diseases................................................151
A Short History of Cancer Treatments........................................................152
Minor Diseases............................................................................................159
Prognosis for Asbestos Diseases................................................................160
Major Diseases............................................................................................161
Minor Diseases............................................................................................166
Obtaining Financial Support............................................................................166
Obtaining Emotional Support..........................................................................173
Section V: Asbestos, Mesothelioma and the Law..............................................185
Asbestos-related Legal Issues........................................................................185
2

3. What Type of Claim?...................................................................................190
Asbestos-related Legislation...........................................................................207
Obtaining Legal Counsel.................................................................................220
End Notes...........................................................................................................231
Table of Figures..................................................................................................231
Bibliography and References..............................................................................232
Index...................................................................................................................263
Glossary..............................................................................................................270
3

4. Introduction
Few substances demonstrate the power – and the attendant danger – of scientific
progress more than asbestos. What started out as a miracle innovation in a new century
of industry and commerce has turned into a vast, fatal disaster. Asbestos is strong, easy
to work with, and massively fire resistant – the holy grail of industrial materials,
particularly at the turn of the twentieth century when combustion and electricity had
become the drivers of economic and technical progress.
Asbestos is also an exemplar of the folly of human greed and short-sightedness.
Although asbestos was known to be a hazardous material from the time of the Greeks
and Romans, if not earlier, modern applications for the substance were so compelling
that decision-makers fell prey to the temptation to wish away the harms, in the name of
economic vitality. Tragically for both manufacturers and for the ordinary people who
paid the cost of their hubris, the dangers were even greater than our ancestors had
understood.
Science and technology opened the door for asbestos to become a major component of
everything from steamships to schoolrooms. Ironically, science – medical science – was
also to lead the way in exploring the ways in which asbestos harms human health,
discovering specific syndromes and diseases with clear connections to asbestos fibers.
Science may have brought asbestos into the daily lives of millions, but it also found the
source of the danger.
Today, exposure to asbestos is widely recognized as enormously dangerous, and
(thanks to the courts) proper compensation is finally being paid to those afflicted.
Medical science now informs us that prolonged exposure to asbestos is fatal. Industrial
workers, seamen, public safety workers, and millions of others – including the families
of those exposed on the job – have all been exposed to asbestos in concentrations
known to cause incurable disease. Although there are still industries and facilities where
the risk is high, knowledge of the dangers of asbestos is nearly universal today.
You should approach this topic armed with information and knowledge of what asbestos
is, what it does, the extent of your rights, the methodology of diagnosis and treatment,
and how and when to obtain legal counsel if that is appropriate in your case. In the
following chapters, we will discuss the various ways in which you may have been
exposed to asbestos. You may be in for an unpleasant surprise, because the use of
asbestos has been ubiquitous in the twentieth century and most Americans have lived,
worked or studied in buildings with asbestos insulation or traveled in vehicles with
asbestos components.
This book is meant to inform and equip you about the dangers of asbestos, the
precautions to take, and how to cope if asbestos exposure is already a part of your life,
whether directly or in a family member, friend or loved one. We will discuss the routes of
natural exposure to asbestos, and examine the relative levels of danger posed by
4

5. various types of asbestos fibers. We will learn where these minerals may or may not be
found, worldwide. Asbestos exposure is not a purely American problem – asbestos has
caused health crises on every inhabited continent. This book is written in the spirit of
support and compassion for those who are suffering or have suffered from exposure in
any way. Disease in whatever form affects not only the afflicted, but also those within
the patient’s circle of life. We hope the information herein will ease some of the stress
associated in living with an illness.
5

6. Section I: Asbestos
Asbestos: A Brief History
What is Asbestos?
Asbestos is the common name given to a group of several fibrous metamorphic
minerals. These mineral silicates grow in chain-like crystal structures. Their fibers can
be separated along the crystal planes of the mineral’s molecular structure. The fibers
are pliable and flexible enough to be spun or woven like cloth. A visible asbestos fiber
can be separated still further down to the microscopic level into billions of minute fibers
that are so light they can stay suspended in air for hours. Waterproof, fireproof, and
resistant to corrosion, the fibers have the tensile strength of piano wire.
Asbestos is generally divided into two different categories: the serpentine form, which
has long, flexible, somewhat curly fibers, and the amphibole group, which has
straighter, stiffer, needle-like fibers.
The serpentine form of asbestos, chrysotile, is the type most used for textiles and most
used for commercial products of all kinds. The amphibole group includes tremolite,
amosite, crocidolite, actinolite, and anthophyllite. All forms of asbestos are resistant to
heat and acids, chemically inert (they do not generally react with other substances), and
have low thermal conductivity1
.
Lightweight, insulating, fireproof, flexible, virtually indestructible, and even able to be
fashioned into cloth—asbestos seemed a miracle product to those who first developed
its commercial uses. It seemed perfectly suited for hundreds of materials used in
construction. The tensile strength of the fibers made asbestos an excellent binding
agent for products like cement, vinyl and mastics2
. Fireproofing and insulation became
ever more important during the rise of the industrial age, and asbestos and human
ingenuity rose to the occasion.
Even consumer products such as ironing board pads, stovetops and hair dryers—any
product that might expose the user to heat—benefited from the amazing combination of
features that asbestos provided. All the properties of asbestos are useful and beneficial
– except for one. Asbestos under pressure or stress has a tendency to fracture into
microscopic airborne fibers that can be inhaled or ingested, lodge deep within the
human body, and create enormous health problems – up to and often including death.
A debate is still ongoing about the relative dangers of the different types of asbestos.
The argument starts with the fact that there are several hundred types of very similar
minerals that many scientists think are equally dangerous to health. They are not
recognized by the U.S. government as “dangerous”, so they are not regulated.
6

7. Chrysotile, the serpentine form, also called white asbestos, is the form most used
commercially. The asbestos industry in the past has promoted chrysotile as the “good”
asbestos, claiming its serpentine form was safe for the human body. This claim has
been widely discredited, yet was still being made in 1998 by interested parties, such as
the Canadian asbestos industry.
The amphibole group makes a handy scapegoat as the “bad” asbestos, being used in
relatively few products since the later twentieth century. Actinolite and tremolite are
considered contaminants and have never been used commercially. Crocidolite, or blue
asbestos, and amosite, or brown asbestos, have been used most on ships and as
spray-on insulation, which is now banned in the U.S.3
. Most amphibole asbestos today
is sold to Third World countries where environmental laws and worker protection are
least strict.
Despite the asbestos industry’s claims, most governmental and public health agencies,
including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services, have stated that chrysotile asbestos is a human health hazard
and causes disease, including bronchogenic lung cancer and mesothelioma4
. There is
no “safe” form of asbestos. Some forms are less likely to break into fibers (and thus be
absorbed by the human body), and other forms are less destructive when they do
become embedded in tissue – but all forms are dangerous, and all forms cause health
problems.
History of Use
The word "asbestos" comes from the Greek word for indestructible. Asbestos was
probably first used by humans as a temper for ceramics, to keep clay from cracking
during the firing process. Asbestos has been found in Neolithic pot shards, going back
six thousand years or more. The first known use of asbestos was by tribal groups living
in what is now Finland, in the area around Paakila, who used it in their pottery as far
back as 4000 BC5
. Between 3000 BC and 2000 BC the Egyptians used asbestos cloth
to wrap the preserved corpses of pharaohs6
. It is probable that there were other uses,
since asbestos has been known since ancient times to be fireproof.
One of the first written Western descriptions of asbestos, by Pliny the Elder (AD 20–79)
in his Natural Histories, first mischaracterized “amiantus,” the name for asbestos at that
time, as a plant with fibers that could be woven into burial shrouds for cremation that
would preserve the ashes of the deceased, as well as into incombustible napkins that
could be cleaned with fire. In a later section he called amiantus a mineral that was
mined in Arcadia, impervious to flame and useful as a talisman against witchcraft.
Pliny’s writings reflected the confusion surrounding the nature of asbestos. Fire-
resistant cloth? A mineral you could weave? Asbestos didn’t fit into any naturally
understood category. It was often described in mystical or supernatural terms. At times
7

8. it was called the hair of a salamander—or in the east, the pelt of a very large rat that
lived in volcanoes and had hair ten feet long.
Archeological studies find evidence of asbestos mining in China in the fifth century AD
and in Iran in the eighth century AD. Later Christian era writers noted its use as lamp
wicks. In the time of the Crusades, asbestos was sold as fragments of the true cross. In
the mid-thirteenth century, Marco Polo returned from Asia with a detailed description of
asbestos mining and fiber preparation in China, confirming that it was a rock, not the fur
of a mythological creature.
As alchemy evolved towards chemistry, descriptions of asbestos became more
scientific. Swedish chemist Torbern Bergman in the mid 1700s described napkins
woven of asbestos that could be thrown in the fire and taken out clean7
. He did various
experiments on the material, concluding it was a curiosity but not one with many
practical applications. In 1724 Benjamin Franklin brought a purse made of asbestos to
England, where it is currently displayed in a museum.
In 1828 the first patent was issued in the United States for using asbestos insulation on
steam engines, and the age of modern asbestos use truly began. During the 1860s
gaskets using asbestos began to be produced. In 1889, the United States asbestos
industry got its start with asbestos imported from Italy which was used for paper and
asbestos board. Brake pads using asbestos were developed in England in 1896.
However, throughout the ancient period and even into the 1800s, uses for asbestos
were limited, because the mineral was difficult to find and was not mined in large
quantities. Asbestos was too rare and expensive for widespread use until the 1870s,
when the first commercial asbestos mines in the world opened in Canada. A huge
deposit of chrysotile or white asbestos, the serpentine form, was found there. Today
more than ninety-five percent of all asbestos-containing products are made with
chrysotile8
.
The H. W. Johns Company, later Johns-Manville, began experimenting with asbestos
for commercial use in the mid-19th century. By the late 1880s, sheet asbestos and
asbestos packings were available, used for insulation of boilers and other heating
devices. Asbestos clothing for firefighters, asbestos roofing and other building materials,
and many other industrial products were available by the turn of the century; Torbern
Bergman would no doubt have been very surprised.
In fact, asbestos has been called the “cornerstone of the industrial revolution”9
. Steam
engines and, later, internal combustion engines generated heat, and asbestos provided
the means to work in the presence of heat. Motor vehicles, ships, trains, turbines,
boilers, and the miles of pipe work that supported these all made use of asbestos
coverings.
The demand for asbestos was supercharged, however, by the increase in urban
populations and the desire of the people living in the new industrial cities to not be
8

9. burned alive. Fire danger increased exponentially in the industrial age as populations
shifted in concentration from rural to urban. Devastating fires in public places such as
theaters, hotels, and sometimes across whole cities (as in the great Chicago fire of
1871 or the fire following the San Francisco earthquake in 1906) drove the demand for
fireproof building materials. In 1911, Underwriters Laboratories established that
asbestos would not spread fire under any circumstance. Asbestos still sets the standard
for fire resistance—with zero flame-spread—against which other materials that might be
substituted for asbestos are tested. Gypsum plaster, slate and fired ceramic were
similarly resistant, but asbestos had the advantage in versatility. It could be woven and
packed, and it was very lightweight and thus suitable for retrofitting buildings that could
not bear the weight of added plaster, slate, or ceramic tile.
Asbestos answered the need for fire protection so well that it was endorsed by and
often required by underwriters, safety engineers, building inspectors and government
agencies in the early twentieth century10
. It became difficult to insure or finance any
building that did not have asbestos in fireproofing applications. Safety concerns
addressed the immediate peril of fire. The possibility of delayed health effects for
individuals did not yet enter the risk analysis.
World production of asbestos had increased from thirty thousand tons in 1901 to five
hundred thousand tons in 1935. In 1934, a passenger ship, the S. S. Morro Castle,
caught fire, with severe casualties, and the maritime industry called for increased use of
asbestos in ships, foreshadowing an even greater surge in asbestos use during WWII.
During the war years, the Navy increased its fleet from 400 ships to nearly 6,800. Most
of the newly built ships contained asbestos virtually everywhere, used to insulate pipes,
boilers, engines, and turbines, and to provide fireproofing11
. Vessels such as aircraft
carriers were “floating bombs”12
carrying huge amounts of fuel and ordnance and
thousands of sailors; risks that could be borne by wooden ships with a crew of a few
dozen, were thought to be too dangerous for ships containing thousands of people and
many tons of explosives, gasoline, and other fuel stores. Fire control and heat
resistance were paramount. The government needed so much asbestos for the military
that a moratorium was declared on any civilian use.
Incendiary bombing devastated whole cities during the war. Mindful of fire hazards,
asbestos stayed in high demand after the war during the U.S. construction boom that
followed. The U.S. used over thirty million metric tons of asbestos in the twentieth
century, two-thirds of it after WWII. In the 1960s, asbestos use was estimated at five to
ten pounds of asbestos per year per person13
. Until 1980, asbestos could be found in
almost every newly built automobile, airplane, train, and building14
.
After asbestos was finally acknowledged a health hazard by the U.S. government,
attempts were made to ban almost all asbestos products, but this ban faced fierce
opposition from the asbestos industry and did not stick except in limited cases.
Asbestos remains a legal ingredient in paint, toasters, ovens, dishwashers, fireplaces,
pipes and pipe insulation, automobile brake shoes, chalkboards and shotgun shells
9

10. (though this situation may be changed with the passage of the Ban Asbestos in America
Act). More than two hundred fifty thousand tons of asbestos was imported into the U.S.
and used in American-made products between 1991 and 2001, according to the U.S.
Geological Survey15
.
Asbestos versus Human Health
Pliny, in the first century AD, mentioned the “diseases of slaves,” illness and death
caused by what we now understand as exposure to asbestos and other occupational
hazards. Some asbestos researchers imply that the Romans may have recognized
asbestos disease; others dispute this. It wasn’t until the rapid increase of asbestos
products in the late 1800s that asbestos-induced disease was recognized by the
modern medical community. The “Lady Inspectors of Factories” in Great Britain
expressed concern in 1898 for workers in “dusty processes.” In the early 1900s,
inspectors reported that respiratory illnesses were reported at every visit to asbestos
plants16
.
By 1914, a Hamburg pathologist reported on “crystals” in the lungs of an asbestos
worker found during autopsy. The first detailed case report of asbestosis was published
in 1924, written by British pathologist W. E. Cooke. There were a number of other
important studies of asbestosis published in Great Britain during the 1920s, and by the
1930s the science of radiology had advanced far enough that chest x-rays were able to
show distinctive signs of asbestos damage in the lungs17
.
It is easy for a modern reader to conclude that early industrialists were completely
heartless for continuing to use asbestos even in the face of medical reports of its
dangers. It is worth remembering that in an era where the average lifespan was much
shorter than today, the prospect of developing lung diseases or cancer in later life
seemed somewhat abstract and hypothetical – after all, if most people are going to die
of consumption or other disease in their 40s, it would not make much sense to take
steps to protect them against a hazard unlikely to ever have a chance to do them harm.
A certain degree of casual acceptance of life’s risks was also more prevalent in that era.
However, that excuse rapidly lost credibility as asbestos use continued to grow, and
studies of asbestos disease multiplied also, in Great Britain, Canada and the United
States. By 1935 it was widely recognized that asbestos could cause severe, often
mortal, disease among people who worked with it. It was known that the disease would
not be evident in the first few years of exposure, and that by the time the disease was
evident, avoiding exposure would not halt its progress18
. By the late 1930s, the
association of asbestosis with lung cancer was reported.
In the United States, a Threshold Limit Value (TLV) for asbestos exposure was
proposed in 1938 by the U.S. Public Health Service, a limit orders of magnitude higher
than the allowable limits of 2007. The Social Security Act of 1935 made funds available
for state and local industrial hygiene programs, but the resulting agencies had no
10

11. regulatory power and often were denied access to industrial sites, so the limits were not
enforced19
.
In the 1940s, the asbestos industry rose to meet the challenge of providing enough
asbestos products to win the war, and in later years to supply the building boom as GIs
returned home and established families. With little government oversight, many
corporations continued to expose their workers to unsafe levels of exposure; at the time,
the emphasis was on defeating global fascism, not on improving industrial health for
American workers.
In October 1964, an important conference on asbestos and health was presented by the
New York Academy of Sciences, and concerns about asbestos exposure finally reached
the working public20
. In 1971, with the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA), a
federal authority was established for workplace safety, one that had the power to
enforce regulations.
OSHA regulates the workplace by mandating protection for workers, including exposure
levels and rules for handling asbestos. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) also enforces rules regarding asbestos. In 1989, the EPA determined that
asbestos was unsafe in any form and introduced the “Asbestos Ban and Phase-out
Rule”, which would have banned asbestos entirely by 1996. However, the rule was
appealed by a number of corporations profiting from asbestos, and in 1991 most of the
ban was overturned by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals21
.
The EPA, through the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) and the Clean Air Act, has
banned several categories of asbestos products with rules that were allowed to stand by
the courts. These are generally products with a high probability of releasing airborne
fibers, as well as any new uses of asbestos22
. The U.S. Consumer Products Safety
Commission (CPSC) also bans several products, specifically asbestos-containing
patching materials and artificial embers for fireplaces.
Other products not covered specifically by rules tested in court remain legal. Although
many corporations have voluntarily replaced asbestos in their products with other
materials, the United States lags behind many other industrialized nations who have
banned asbestos outright or are phasing out its use.
Asbestos Exposure
Asbestos fibers do not dissolve, evaporate, burn up, or migrate through soil. They can
remain virtually unchanged for a very long time, but once freed of a binding substance
such as other minerals—or perhaps the vinyl in a piece of fractured floor tile, or the
cement in a crumbling pipe—they tend to break into shorter pieces or separate into a
larger number of thinner fibers. Small-diameter fibers can stay airborne for a long time
and can be carried long distances by wind or water.
11

12. Asbestos may occur in large natural mineral deposits or as contaminants in other
minerals such as talc or vermiculite. Even if these deposits are left undisturbed by man,
the breakdown of asbestos-containing rock by erosion can release free fibers into the
air. Ten fibers of asbestos are typically found per cubic meter of outdoor air (about the
amount a person breathes in an hour) – asbestos is a component of the crust of the
Earth, and there is no such thing as a zero level of asbestos exposure. This background
level does not represent a significant health risk, however. Typical levels in cities may
be ten times higher, and levels may be a thousand times higher close to an asbestos
mine or factory. These high levels represent a significant health risk. People working
unprotected where asbestos products are actively being manipulated or processed may
be exposed to much higher levels.
The major health hazards of asbestos result from the inhalation of the microscopic
fibers. Most of the fibers inhaled are trapped by the protective layer of mucus that lines
the sinuses and throat, and simply coughed or sneezed out or swallowed into the
stomach. Some fibers, however, may escape and travel deep into the lungs. They
accumulate in lung tissue like microscopic needles. Some are destroyed by the body’s
immune system, but in large numbers or greater size, they begin to overwhelm the
body’s defenses. Inhaled fibers cause inflammation and the slow build-up of scar tissue.
This tissue stiffens and will not expand and contract like healthy lung, so that breathing
becomes difficult. Pulmonary function eventually becomes severely compromised.
Through mechanisms not well characterized, cancer of the lung or the pleura or
peritoneum may develop as well, given enough time.
Another source of asbestos exposure is drinking water. Asbestos fibers do not dissolve
in water, but they can be washed from natural deposits of asbestos by erosion, or run
off waste deposits near mines. Asbestos-containing cement pipes and filters can also
contribute fibers to water. Most locations in the U.S. have asbestos concentrations of
less than one million fibers per liter of water, although samples may contain ten to three
hundred million fibers per liter in some areas. Swallowed asbestos fibers will nearly all
be excreted harmlessly within a few days, but a small number may penetrate the cells
that line the stomach or intestine. A few may migrate to the bloodstream and become
trapped in other tissues or be filtered out by the kidneys.
The health effects from swallowing asbestos are not well defined. Some research
suggests higher rates of cancer of the esophagus, stomach and intestines can result
from ingested asbestos, but the medical community is still undecided23
. Ingested
asbestos is not thought to be the major area of health concern, as the data shows that
inhaled asbestos is the source of most asbestos-related disease.
As asbestos is clearly most dangerous when inhaled, the U.S. government has
concentrated its regulations on airborne asbestos. The Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA), under the authority of the Clean Air Act, published the National Emission
Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) in 1973. NESHAP defined the
important distinction between more hazardous “friable” and less hazardous “non-friable”
asbestos-containing materials.
12

13. A friable asbestos-containing material (ACM) is a material containing more than one
percent asbestos that can be crumbled, pulverized, or reduced to powder by hand
pressure when dry—in other words, it has a tendency to release airborne fibers when
disturbed.
A non-friable ACM is a material containing more than one percent asbestos that, when
dry, cannot be crumbled, pulverized, or reduced to powder by hand pressure—in other
words, the asbestos fibers are relatively bound up by other components and will stay in
place with normal handling24
.
The EPA recognized that a non-friable ACM had the potential to become friable if
damaged or degraded enough, and further divided non-friable materials into
subcategories depending on their likelihood of becoming friable. Regulations differ
depending on how friable a material is or is likely to become.
Some of the most friable ACMs in common use around 1970 were banned under
NESHAP, particularly sprayed-on surfacing materials that were used for insulation,
acoustic ceilings, and decoration, unless it could be shown that the asbestos fibers were
completely encapsulated and not friable after drying.
In 1989, the EPA tried to ban the importation, manufacture and selling of almost all
other asbestos-containing materials with the Asbestos Ban and Phase-out Rule.
However, the ban was mostly overturned in 1991 by the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of
Appeals. In the 5 November 1993 Federal Register, the EPA announced its
determination of the asbestos-containing materials still subject to the ban according to
the Court’s rulings.
Materials that remained banned were corrugated paper, rollboard, commercial paper,
specialty paper, flooring felt, and any new uses of asbestos.
Materials that were exempted from the ban include pipeline wrap, vinyl/asbestos tile,
millboard, asbestos clothing, asbestos-cement corrugated sheet, asbestos-cement flat
sheet, roofing felt, and asbestos-cement shingle25
. Though not specifically described in
the EPA’s clarification, other ACMs that remain legal in the U.S. include automatic
transmission components, clutch facings, gaskets, brake blocks, disc brake pads, and
other types of friction materials.
With so many asbestos-containing materials still legal, and so many now-banned
materials still in place in aging structures, asbestos exposure remains a significant risk
for a large segment of the U.S. population. Obviously those working in asbestos mining
or textile milling, asbestos transport and handling or disposal, asbestos abatement, and
building demolition or ship breaking will handle asbestos and ACMs on a daily basis.
People working in the railroad, refinery, aircraft, aerospace and shipbuilding industries
may encounter ACMs. Military and Coast Guard personnel, auto mechanics and
assembly workers, and virtually anybody in the construction industry risk asbestos
13

14. exposure. People working in public buildings that contain asbestos materials that are
disturbed by remodeling, maintenance, or other damage may be exposed. Additionally,
the families of any or all of these people might be exposed to dust brought home on
clothing or on the body26
. Asbestos exposure remains a pervasive health risk as long as
asbestos-containing products are being created, used, or destroyed.
Asbestos Exposure Profiles
Occupational
The rate of mesothelioma, asbestosis and other asbestos-related disease among those
who have worked directly with asbestos, i.e., asbestos miners and those who worked in
asbestos processing facilities, is well-documented and commonly known.
What has come as a surprise to many people is how many other industrial occupations
involve some contact with asbestos. In fact, the tentacles of asbestos have reached so
far and so wide that it would almost be easier to point out occupations in which there
was no exposure risk.
Historically, most people were exposed to asbestos fibers in the course of working in
their trade or occupation. The ancient Romans were well aware of this; while they
valued their “everlasting wicks” and were amazed at the fire-resistant qualities of
asbestos fabrics, they could not help noticing that the slaves whose job it was to weave
asbestos cloth often developed wracking coughs that at times produced blood as they
began literally wasting away. Their name for what are collectively known today as
asbestos-related diseases was the “Disease of Slaves”27
.
With the decline and eventual implosion of the Roman Empire during the fifth century,
much technical knowledge was lost, although legend has it that the Frankish King
Charlemagne (c. 745–814) had an asbestos tablecloth; he was said to amaze his
guests with it by throwing it in the fireplace for cleaning28
.
The real story of asbestos and occupational exposure starts shortly after the beginning
of the Industrial Age, around 1800. Because industry depends on intense heat, early
industrial technicians found the heat-resistant, fire-proof characteristics quite useful. As
technology advanced and increasingly applied to industry, asbestos was also
discovered to be resistant to caustic chemicals (i.e., acids) as well as electrical current.
Basically, wherever high temperatures were involved or there was a danger of fire,
some type of asbestos insulation was used.
ACMs Commonly Used in Industrial Applications
14

15. The Environmental Protection Agency has compiled the following list of ACMs
(asbestos containing materials) that are commonly used in industrial and
building/construction trades. This list is provided as a reference for the section on
specific occupations that follows.
• Acoustical Plaster
• Adhesives
• Asphalt Floor Tile
• Base Flashing
• Blown-in Insulation
• Boiler Insulation
• Breaching Insulation
• Caulking/Putties
• Ceiling Tiles and Lay-in
Panels
• Cement Pipes
• Cement Wallboard
• Cement Siding
• Chalkboards
• Construction Mastics (floor,
tile, carpet, ceiling tile, etc.)
• Cooling Towers
• Decorative Plaster
• Ductwork Flexible Fabric
Connections
• Electrical Cloth
• Electrical Panel Partitions
• Electric Wiring Insulation
• Elevator Equipment Panels
• Elevator Brake Shoes
• Fire Doors
• Fireproofing Materials
• Flooring Backing
• High Temperature Gaskets
• Heating and Electrical Ducts
• Joint Compounds
• Laboratory Hoods/Table
Tops
• Laboratory Gloves
• Fire Blankets
• Fire Curtains
• HVAC Duct Insulation
• Packing Materials (for
wall/floor penetrations)
• Pipe Insulation (corrugated
air-cell, block, etc.)
• Roofing Felt
• Roofing Shingles
• Spackling Compounds
• Spray-Applied Insulation
(especially Monokote)
• Taping Compounds
(thermal)
• Textured Paints/Coatings
• Thermal Paper Products
• Vinyl Floor Tile
• Vinyl Sheet Flooring
• Vinyl Wall Coverings
• Wallboard
Table 1: U.S. EPA's Asbestos-Containing Materials List29
It should be noted that the above list is not exhaustive; there are as many as three
thousand products that contain asbestos. It is however a reliable guide to the types of
materials commonly used in the occupations discussed in the following sections.
Precautions
The corporate cover-up regarding the health effects of asbestos are well known and
thoroughly documented. Most of this was on the part of asbestos manufacturers
themselves; management in other industries were not always necessarily
knowledgeable about asbestos hazards (although many undoubtedly were).
Today, there are many regulations regarding the handling of asbestos, which is no
longer used in many industries. These regulations require that asbestos abatement—
meaning removal or “encapsulation” (sealing the material so it does not crumble)—be
undertaken by trained, licensed personnel wearing full protection and taking all
standard precautions.
Construction workers, who are among those at greatest risk of asbestos poisoning, are
required to STOP WORK IMMEDIATELY if suspected asbestos is encountered at a job
site. The project supervisor is then required by law in many states to contact the
Department of Health in their community.
15

16. Since asbestos fibers can lodge in clothing and hair, workers who think they have been
exposed to asbestos should shower and change clothes if possible prior to leaving a
jobsite. Occupational safety regulations in most states require that shower facilities be
available in locations where dust is a problem. This is particularly important for workers
who share their home with others such as roommates or family members; those
individuals are susceptible to secondhand asbestos exposure brought into the home by
the asbestos-exposed worker.
Construction Trades
The first commercial asbestos products were fireproof textiles, roofing and insulation for
building construction. H. W. Johns, whose company exists today as Johns-Manville (a
subsidiary of Berkshire-Hathaway, Inc., which is primarily an insurance company, oddly
enough) began marketing asbestos building materials in 1858.
Today, it is not uncommon to find asbestos flooring, insulation and wallboard throughout
homes constructed prior to the 1980s. Asbestos exposure is a common hazard for
those in building trades, including carpenters, drywall and insulation workers (such as
laggers), plasterers and linoleum workers. One major source of this exposure was a
W.R. Grace & Company product called Zonolite, which was frequently contaminated
with tremolite asbestos fibers.
Asbestos exposure is a particular risk for electricians and plumbers, whose work takes
them into places where asbestos insulation is commonly installed. Another type of
construction worker whose duties often required access to such areas are HVAC
mechanics and certain sheet metal workers (those responsible for the installation and
maintenance of heating and air conditioning ducts).
Asbestos was a common ingredient in certain types of mortar, bricks (such as
firebricks), cement and cement products, as asbestos added great tensile strength to
such materials. Masonry workers and bricklayers were often exposed to asbestos dust.
House painters who used certain types of textured paint have been in contact with
asbestos fibers. Because asbestos was used so widely in old buildings, demolition
workers and renovators are also at risk for such exposure.
Marine Occupations
Another industry in which workers were commonly exposed to asbestos fibers is
shipbuilding and marine repairs. Because of the danger of fire at sea and motivated by
the Morro Castle tragedy in 1935, asbestos insulation was used in abundance
throughout all types of sea-going vessels constructed between 1935 and 1980. In
addition to the construction trades referred to above, welders, riveters, pipe or
steamfitters and machinists are affected by asbestos, as well as boilermakers.
16

17. The danger is not limited to ship builders; those who work aboard them have also been
exposed to asbestos. This includes naval personnel as well as merchant seamen,
longshoremen and marine engineers.
Metalworkers
In addition to welders, almost anyone who worked in the steel industry has suffered
asbestos exposure. Asbestos insulation was commonly found in the lining of blast
furnace doors. Ironically, one source of asbestos exposure was the very gear meant to
protect steel and ironworkers, such as fireproof overcoats, aprons and face masks. If
and when these became worn and damaged, asbestos fibers from the lining were
released into the air.
Specific jobs in which a worker was likely to suffer asbestos exposure include
pourer/caster, operator, tender, furnace operator and inspector, machine setter, steel
lather/millwright, and welder30
.
The manufacture of aluminum requires high temperatures as well. Although these
temperatures were lower than those required in the manufacture of steel, asbestos
insulation could be found in the potting rooms of such plants.
Paper Mill and Textile Workers
As stated above, asbestos was frequently woven into fire-resistant fabric intended to
protect the wearer. As one might suspect, those who worked at textile mills, where such
clothing was produced, have been exposed to elevated levels of asbestos fibers.
A French study undertaken in 2002 showed that paper and pulp mill workers suffered
from mesothelioma at a rate well over twice that of the general population31
. This
confirmed the results of a similar study done in Scandinavia several years earlier of
women who also worked in such mills; an Italian study in 2005 showed similar results
for other asbestos diseases32
.
Asbestos cement was often used for securing the drying felts, which were themselves
made from asbestos-containing fabrics33
.
Automotive Occupations
At one time, asbestos could be found in many components of an automobile. The
firewall, clutch plate and brake systems all contained asbestos. Many types of gaskets
and gasket material contained asbestos fibers as well. In fact, a spokeswoman for an
asbestos disease advocacy group in the United Kingdom said,
17

18. “…former car workers are at particular risk from this disease because of
the large amount of asbestos used in vehicle production…of particular
concern to us are those individuals who worked on the assembly lines.
They dealt with the brakes on cars which were sprayed, and baked, in
asbestos ovens”34
.
Today, most of the asbestos found in vehicles is in brake linings. As these linings wear
down, they produce dust. Although the best brake linings today are made from ceramic,
steel wool and Kevlar, asbestos brake linings are still installed in many older vehicles.
Automotive technicians, mechanics and assembly line workers have all been exposed
to asbestos fibers in varying amounts.
The Oil Industry
The Agency of Toxic Substances and Disease Registry reports that oil industry workers
may carry the greatest risk of asbestos exposure35
. Oil industry workers, more than
other professions, work in environments where fire can be incredibly deadly, and where
fireproofing equipment is a critical safety need. As a result, asbestos insulation was very
commonly used on oil rigs and in protective clothing worn by workers.
Chemical Engineers
Asbestos is highly resistant to corrosive chemicals such as acids. Because of this,
asbestos was often used in countertops, flooring, ceilings and wall insulation as well as
protective clothing in the chemical industry.
Other Industrial Occupations
Basically, any occupation that brought a worker in contact with asbestos insulation or
other type of asbestos-containing material (ACM) is considered to be at-risk. Recall that
asbestos insulation is resistant to both electrical current and caustic chemicals. Building
custodians and maintenance workers, railroad employees (particularly those who repair
and maintain right-of-way equipment and rolling stock), packing and gasket
manufacturers, those involved in the manufacture of refractory products for high
temperature applications, and aerospace and defense industry workers have all been
involved in handling, or in contact with asbestos and/or asbestos products.
According to figures complied by the Center For Health Statistics, truckers are also at
risk for occupational exposure to asbestos; mesothelioma accounts for over two percent
of all job-related fatalities. The reason here is likely to be due to the wide range of
industrial buildings to which truck drivers receive and deliver cargo. For those who
18

19. service their own vehicles, the occupational hazards are similar to those faced by
automotive workers.
Many asbestos suits have been filed by power plant workers and others who are
employed in hydro-electric and coal and gas-fired generation plants. The hazards here
are similar to those faced by electricians.
Agricultural Workers
This may be surprising to some, given that agricultural work takes place out of doors
and does not usually involve heat or electricity which would require asbestos protection.
However, many agricultural workers became exposed to asbestos through another
W.R. Grace product, known as vermiculite, which was commonly added to potting soil.
Vermiculite is a mineral which, when exposed to heat, literally puffs up like a kernel of
popcorn. By itself, it is a harmless substance. However, most vermiculite was mined
around Libby, Montana, where a great deal of asbestos was mined and processed. As a
result, virtually all of the Grace vermiculite product was contaminated with tremolite
fibers.
White-Collar and Clerical Professions
Another surprising group of occupationally exposed individuals: school teachers.
Chalkboards were often made with asbestos and Center for Health Statistics figures
indicate that mesothelioma is responsible for as many as 3.6% of all occupationally-
related deaths among elementary school teachers36
.
Summary
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) has determined that asbestos exposure is the
leading (and according to medical researchers, the only verifiable) cause of
mesothelioma. Based on 1999 figures given in the 2004 Worker Health Chartbook, the
typical mesothelioma victim is most likely to be a Caucasian male resident who works in
an industrial setting or a chemical plant, and lives in either the Mid and North Atlantic
States or the Pacific Northwest.
Proportional Mortality Rates (PMRs) for mesothelioma were found to be highest among
industrial workers (shipbuilding trades and metal and steel workers), followed by electric
light and power employees and all construction trades. Asbestosis was a greater risk for
insulation workers, followed by shipyard workers and miners of nonmetallic materials37
.
While those who have been exposed to asbestos have reason for concern and should
monitor their respiratory health carefully, it should be kept in mind that mesothelioma is
still a relatively rare disease, affecting fewer than twelve out of every one million people.
19

20. Exposure at Home, School and Play
The fact is that some degree of exposure to asbestos fibers is universal; there is not
one human or animal on the earth who has not breathed in some amount of asbestos,
because it is found in the crust of the Earth and is a natural substance.
This does not mean that everyone will eventually contract asbestosis or mesothelioma.
Whether or not someone will develop such a disease largely on the amount of the
exposure and how long such exposure occurred. Except in extremely rare cases,
asbestos disease develops only in certain individuals who (A) have been exposed to
heavy concentrations of asbestos fiber over an extended period of time, and/or (B) are
predisposed to the development of such disease.
That said, there are many instances of non-occupational, or secondary exposure to
asbestos, and many places and circumstances in which this can occur. Usually, this is
because of the presence of friable asbestos in older homes or buildings (built prior to
1980), or in the community environment (as was the case in Libby, Montana and similar
mining and industrial towns in Australia, Canada and South Africa).
Because asbestos is the product of naturally-occurring geologic processes however, it
can be—and often is—found just below the ground surface. This has recently become a
serious problem in California as suburban sprawl increasingly spreads into the foothills
of that state’s three major mountain ranges, placing human habitation in direct proximity
with sources of raw asbestos fibers.
This Old House
In houses build before 1980, asbestos-containing materials (ACMs) could be found in
any number of places. The main categories are as follows:
• Insulation: This is where most asbestos contamination is found in older homes.
It is also the most dangerous, because it is usually hidden; therefore, it is easily
forgotten.
A great deal of ACM insulation was manufactured by Johns-Manville and W.R.
Grace & Company (currently under criminal investigation by the federal
government). W.R. Grace marketed a spray-on type of fire-resistant insulation
called Monokote; although marketed as “asbestos-free,” the material actually
contained twelve percent asbestos by volume up until the early 1970s. Because
of federal environmental regulations, the company cut this back to one percent in
1973 so that it could legally continue to make the claim that the product was free
of asbestos38
.
20

21. Another Grace product, manufactured and sold for nearly sixty years, was
Zonolite. This was a loose fill made from a unique mineral called vermiculite.
When heated, vermiculite actually “pops” like popcorn, forming a soft material. By
itself, vermiculite is an innocuous substance, but since the source of vermiculite
was near the asbestos mines of Libby, it was virtually always contaminated39
.
Zonolite was often used in attic spaces.
• Wallboard: Concrete wallboard was once popular for its fire resistance. The
problem lay in the fact that concrete, when made into sheets thin enough to be
light and workable is quite brittle. Therefore, it was standard practice to use
concrete impregnated with asbestos fibers. The asbestos, bonded with Portland
cement, made for a product that was thin and relatively lightweight, yet incredible
strong, sound-proof, and resistant to fire and moisture40
.
Asbestos cement was also used for shingles and external siding; much of this
material was manufactured by Johns-Manville, and is known as transite41
.
• Floors: Many types of floor tiles contained asbestos as well as the backing on
vinyl flooring and the adhesives used in order to fix these into place. Other ACM
flooring includes asphalt and rubber.
• Ceilings: Acoustic ceiling tiles were frequently made with asbestos, but the most
common and problematic are the spray-on “popcorn” ceiling texture applied in
many homes during the 1950s, 60s and 70s. Not all of these popcorn-textured
ceilings contain asbestos, but many do. The only way to be certain is to have
testing performed by qualified asbestos contractors.
• Roofing: Asbestos shingles were commonly used because of their light weight
and extreme durability; a 1919 H. W. Johns-Manville Co. ad showing an
asbestos roof on the Cleveland Museum of Art promised that "during your life
and even those of your children it will still be guarding the art treasures beneath it
from weather and fire"42
, and the claim was not just marketing hype—asbestos
roofs can last eighty-five years43
. The asbestos content of such roofing can range
from five to thirty-five percent
• Fireplaces: The most commonly used ACM was fire-brick. Unlike normal brick,
which is prone to crack when exposed to extreme heat, fire brick is exceptionally
dense. Also known as refractory brick, fire brick was once made with asbestos
fibers.
Insulation commonly used around fireplaces and wood stoves also included
transite and ACM paper. The doors of wood stoves were made from asbestos,
and are prone to release fibers as they become aged and worn.
One other location where ACMs are frequently found is the artificial ashes and
embers that are used in gas-fired fireplaces.
21

22. ACMs may also be installed around oil furnaces, or around water pipes as insulation.
Friable or Non-Friable
There is some controversy over the relative safety of asbestos products commonly
found in older homes, and whether the material is dangerous or not. Many sources
claim that unless the material is “friable,” meaning it is crumbling and releasing fibers, it
is not dangerous.
It is true that spray-on asbestos insulation, cement wallboard and roof shingles are not
normally friable when new and in good condition. The problem—and the danger—lies in
the fact that these materials have been shown to deteriorate with age. Eventually, they
get to the point where even a mild disturbance, such as walking across a floor, can
cause non-friable ACMs to shake loose.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) website has in the past declared that “THE
BEST THING TO DO WITH ASBESTOS MATERIAL IN GOOD CONDITION IS TO
LEAVE IT ALONE!” Nonetheless, Dr. Aubrey Miller, who works with the EPA on
asbestos issues, has acknowledged that nothing about asbestos is certain: “The truth is,
asbestos can go from being benign to being terribly dangerous if it becomes friable and
fibers escape into the living area…you can never forget about it.”44
Asbestos at School
In general, much of what is true about the home applies to school buildings as well.
Recently, as aging schools have undergone renovations, asbestos has become a major
problem.
Legally, if asbestos is discovered in the course of a renovation project, such work must
stop immediately and local health authorities should be contacted. Asbestos abatement
must then be undertaken by licensed contractors who are specially trained in the
handling of asbestos waste.
Unfortunately, such services are expensive. There have been incidents in some parts of
the country where such procedures have not been carried out properly. Recent news
stories in Fullerton, California reported how teachers in two of that community’s high
schools came down with sudden respiratory problems; bags of asbestos waste were
carelessly left out in open hallways and there was some question about whether or not
warnings were adequately posted45
.
While investigations into the Fullerton matter are continuing as of the time of this writing,
it is no secret that across the nation, schools are increasingly strapped for funds—which
22

23. may result in instances of improper asbestos abatement carried out by unqualified
personnel.
Asbestos Risks at Play
The story of the people of Libby, Montana is covered in greater detail elsewhere in this
book. For now, suffice it to say that the asbestos coming out of the W.R. Grace mines
wound up on school athletic fields, city parks and playgrounds, public streets and the
yards and gardens of people’s homes.
Gardening is not an area where one would expect to encounter asbestos exposure –
unless the gardener was using vermiculite as part of the soil mix. In its pure form,
vermiculite is odorless, sterile and non-toxic. Classified with the phyllosilicate mineral
group, it expands when heated and wet46
. Although chemically similar to chrysotile
asbestos, it is not an asbestiform mineral; geologically, it is considered a form of clay.
Gardeners have long found vermiculite useful for amending the soil, i.e., lower the pH
level, absorption of excess soil nutrients, improvement of water retention, etc.
Unfortunately, a great deal of vermiculite came from mines in Libby—not far from the
chrysotile asbestos operations. As a result, virtually all of the vermiculite sold by the
W.R. Grace corporation was contaminated with asbestos fibers.
The danger posed by vermiculite is not past. A recent EPA test of sixteen bags of
randomly purchased vermiculite revealed the presence of asbestos fibers in five of
them. In one sample, the fibers were actually friable47
.
Gardening expert Paul James does not recommend that gardeners give up the use of
vermiculite altogether, but suggests that certain precautions be taken, such as leaving
vermiculite outside, wearing a mask, keeping vermiculite wet and wetting down and
removing clothing before going inside48
.
On the other hand, investigative reporter Michael Bowker, author of Fatal Deception:
The Terrifying True Story of How Asbestos is Killing America suggests that there is no
safe level of asbestos. Some people have lived with asbestos all their lives and been
unaffected; on the other hand, some have contracted deadly cancers after very limited
exposure.
In any event, vermiculite, while harmless by itself, is very rarely found in that state.
Formed as a result of volcanic activity under intense geologic pressure, vermiculite is
usually mixed in with many other minerals—most commonly, chrysotile asbestos, which
is formed by the same geologic process49
.
Asbestos Neighborhood
23

24. Serpentine, from which comes chrysotile asbestos, is the official California State Rock.
It is commonly found under the surface in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, the Klamath
Mountains, and the Coast Range.
Most farming in this predominantly agricultural state was done in the valleys; the search
for gold and silver took place in the high mountain country. The foothills were
predominantly for grazing livestock. As the population of California has grown unabated
however, new housing developments have become increasingly obsequious, snaking
their way up into the foothills.
Now, state health authorities have realized that the construction activity that clears the
way for new home construction—grading, bulldozing and digging—has scratched away
the surface and exposed the serpentine rock underneath, releasing billions of asbestos
fibers into the air.
In 2007, a resident of El Dorado, California, about twenty-five miles east of Sacramento
in the Sierra foothills, discovered a vein of asbestos when digging in his back yard.
Testing by the EPA showed the presence of elevated levels of airborne asbestos in
hundreds of samples taken50
.
A study performed at the University of California at Davis indicated a strong connection
between the odds of contracting mesothelioma and the distance a person lives from an
asbestos source51
.
More Asbestos In The Home
The phenomenon known as “secondary exposure” to asbestos deserves mentioning
here.
What has become increasingly apparent over the past several years is that the families
of industrial workers were often just as much at risk for asbestos poisoning as the
workers themselves. Asbestos is an insidious substance; the fibers will easily lodge in
hair or clothing, and has not trouble at all traveling from the work site to the home. Once
there, these fibers are released into the air, affecting family members.
There have been many lawsuits involving the victims of such secondary exposure, and
a court in Washington State has ruled that corporations can be held liable for such
exposure. The case, originating in a county located just north of Seattle, involved a
paper mill worker whose wife died of mesothelioma due to asbestos fibers on his work
clothes. Overturning a lower court ruling, the Washington State Court of Appeals
determined that the defendant did owe a duty of protection towards the employee’s
family52
.
Today, the only workers who should be involved directly with asbestos should be
trained asbestos contractors. Unfortunately, there are many products today that still
24

25. legally contain asbestos. It is important for industrial workers who have reason to
believe they may be exposed to asbestos fibers to shower and change clothes prior to
leaving the work site.
Natural Exposure
With so much in the news today about man-made pollutants that are poisoning the
planet and our environment, it’s easy to forget that ultimately, all pollutants derive from
natural sources—mineral, biological, or some combination thereof. Even petrochemicals
are derived from plants that lived and died several hundred million years ago.
This is also true about the substance we know as asbestos. The word “asbestos” is
really a convenient, somewhat generic label applied to several different naturally-
occurring minerals found in specific rock formations throughout the world. And this is
really all that asbestos is: various types of stone, chemically not unlike slate or other
types of metamorphic rocks. These minerals differ primarily in the unique molecular
structures that allow them to be flexible like organic fibers while retaining the tensile
strength of stone.
What Asbestos Is
In the U.S., there are six different minerals that are “legally recognized” as being
asbestos and regulated accordingly. Starting with the most commonly used, in
descending order these are:
• Chrysotile
• Amosite
• Crocidolite
• Tremolite
• Actinolite
• Anthophyllite
In addition to these six, there are two other naturally occurring asbestiform minerals not
recognized as such by the federal government, which are known as winchite and
richterite.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), chrysotile accounts for
around ninety-five percent of the asbestos building materials used in the U.S.53
All About Chrysotile
25

26. Chrysotile is considered part of the group of minerals known as serpentine. Also known
as “white” asbestos, it has a sheet-like, or layered molecular structure in which the
negative and positive ions are not evenly lined up; this causes the fibers to curl in a
snake-like manner (hence the name “serpentine”).
Serpentine is widely found throughout the world. Major chrysotile deposits have been
found in the following locations:
Africa:
• Ethiopia (Wallaga Province)
Asia:
• Sakha Republic (Southeastern Siberia, Russia)
• Primorsky Kray (Far-Eastern Region, Russia)
• Liaoning Province, Manchuria (China)
Australia and New Zealand:
• Pilbara Region, Western Australia
• Wiluna Shire, Western Australia
• Tasmania (Zeehan and Heazlewood Districts)
• Southland (South Island, New Zealand)
• Waikato (North Island, New Zealand)
Europe:
• Cornwall, U.K. (Lizard Peninsula)
• Derbyshire, U.K.
• Cumbria, U.K. (Keswick District)
• Isle of Skye, U.K. (Inverness, Scotland)
• Varmaland, Sweden
• Vastmanland, Sweden
• Rhine-Westfalia, Germany
• Rhine-Palatinate, Germany
• Odenwald, Germany
• Bavaria (Franconia, Germany)
• Switzerland (Saas Fee Region)
• Austria (Salzberg and Styria areas)
• Ladoga Region, Russia
• Sverdlovslovska Oblast’, Russia (Ural Mountains)
26

27. Middle East:
• Muscqat Province, Oman
• Helmand Province, Afghanistan
North America:
• Northwest Washington State (Whatcom County)
• Eastern Oregon (Baker and Grant Counties)
• Southeastern Oregon (Jackson County)
• Central California (San Benito, Tuolomne, Butte Counties)
• South Central Arizona (Cochise and Gila Counties)
• Northern Arizona (Apache and Coconino Counties)
• North Central Colorado (Boulder County)
• Northeastern Minnesota (St. Louis County)
• Michigan (Peninsula, Marquette and Dickinson Counties)
• Northwest Territories (Contwoyto Lake)
• Western North Carolina and Northern Georgia
• New Jersey
• Upstate New York (Warren County)
• Ontario (Renfrew County)
• Quebec (Stanstead and Megantic Counties)
South America:
• Sao Paolo area (Brazil)
• Belo Horizonte area (Southeast Region, Brazil)
• Poçöes (Northeast Region, Brazil)54
In addition, chrysotile was the primary product of the W.R. Grace & Company Mines in
Libby, Montana (this will be covered in more detail in a later section).
Serpentine, of which chrysotile is one example, is a metamorphic rock, which means
that from a geologic standpoint, it started out as one type of rock and was transformed
into another by being subjected to intense heat and pressure. Chemically, chrysotile is
considered to be a hydrated magnesium silicate. In basic terms, this means that it is
primarily a compound of magnesium and silicon which has been subjected to water
under conditions of high heat and pressure. In the case of serpentine, these conditions
have resulted in a peculiar molecular structure that results in the formation of soft, curly
fibers55
.
In the U.S., natural exposure to chrysotile fibers is likely to take place in the mountain
foothills, particularly in that state’s three major ranges (Sierra Nevada, Klamath and
Coast Range). Increasingly, this is becoming a problem as suburban sprawl begins to
27

28. spread up into these foothills and earth-moving activities (primarily digging and
bulldozing) expose these serpentine deposits to the atmosphere.
In its natural state, chrysotile has a “silky luster,” with an olive-green color.
The Amphibole Group
Unlike curly serpentine chrysotile fibers, amphiboles are straight. Under a microscope,
they appear as tiny needle-like structures. Of the five types of amphiboles legally
recognized as asbestos, three—amosite, crocidolite and tremolite—have been
commonly used in industrial applications. These have virtually been eliminated from
commercial use. However, the risk of localized environmental exposure, although small,
does exist.
All are considered amphiboles; nonetheless, the various minerals that make up this
group are all quite different from one another in terms of chemical composition. In each
case, this is reflective of the environment in which the mineral formed.
Amosite: This is better known as “brown asbestos;” the proper scientific name is
grunerite, named for the Swiss chemist Louis Gruner who first identified the mineral in
the 1850s56
. “Amosite” is a proprietary acronym for “Asbestos Mines Of South Africa,”
which the world’s major source of this substance. Iron (Fe) is the most common element
in this mineral, the oxidation of which is the cause of its brown color57
.
Because of its high iron content, amosite is especially resistant to corrosive chemicals,
and was therefore a common ingredient in battery casings and other asbestos-
reinforced plastics. It was also used in asbestos cement, chemical plants and some
types of roofing and paneling58
.
A study published in 1999 suggested that localized amosite exposure was a risk for iron
miners and those living in the vicinity of such mining operations59
.
Localities where amosite has been mined and/or is known or reported to exist in the
ground are as follows:
Africa:
• Cameroon (Nord-Ouest, Nkambe)
Asia:
• China (Qinglong, Tangyuan, Yitong, Wutai Counties, Inner Mongolia)
• Japan (Honshu - Ishibe, Kamaishi City*, Kyushu - Ono-gun)
Australia:
28

29. • New South Wales (Yacowinna County)
• Queensland (Cloncurry District)
• South Australia (Middleback Range, Iron Knob)
• Tasmania (Temma and Luina areas)
• Western Australia (Abadoss and Younami)
Europe:
• Austria (Stahlhofen area)
• Finland (Seinäjoki)
• France (Provence/Alpes/Côte d’Azur, Collobrières and Les Mayons)
• Hungary (Fejér County, Velencei Mountains, Sukoró)
• Norway (Sor-Trøndelag, Øppdal)*
• Portugal (Vila Real District)*
• Slovak Republic (Western Slovenské Rudhorie and Bratislava in the
Malé Karpaty Mountains)
• Sweden (Dalarna, Narke, Södermanland, Västmanland)*
• United Kingdom (Botallack-Pendeen area, Cornwall)
North America:
• Arizona (Graham and Yavapai Counties)
• Colorado (Jefferson County, Ralston Buttes District)
• Maine (Waldo County, Palermo area)
• Massachusetts (Essex and Hampshire Counties)
• Michigan (Imperial Heights, Marquette Iron Range, Dickerson County
Felch Formation, Gogebic and Iron Counties, Negaunee)
• Minnesota (Cuyuna North Range)
• Missouri (Washington County, Meramec State Park)
• New Hampshire (Washington County, Jackson Falls area)
• North Carolina (Allegheny County Bald Knob area, Iredell County)
• South Dakota (Custer, Lawrence, Pennington Counties)
• Vermont (Rutland County)
• Virginia (Albermarle County)
• Wisconsin (Ashland, Florence, Jackson, Marinette and Rusk Counties)
• Wyoming (Fremont County)
• Newfoundland (Walsh River area)
• Northwest Territories
• Ontario (Michipicotin Harbour)*
South America:
29

30. • Bolivia (Santa Cruz Department, Don Mario Prospect)
• Brazil (Parauabas area)*60
_________________________________________
* denotes undocumented report
Crocidolite: More commonly known as “blue asbestos,” its scientific name is
Riebeckite, after the nineteenth-century German explorer, Emil Riebeck.
Crocidolite is rich in sodium, with substantial levels of magnesium and iron. What makes
these particular fibers so dangerous to human health is their shape; these fibers are
long and relatively rigid, resembling microscopic spears61
.
Crocidolite is highly resistant to heat, and was used primarily in heat-related and fire-
proofing applications. These included spray coatings used in buildings, lagging for hot
water pipes, and thermal insulation for industrial ovens, kilns and steam pipes62
.
Amazingly, crocidolite was a primary ingredient used in the filter of a popular cigarette
during the mid-to-late 1950s—the Kent “Micronite” filter63
.
Most environmental (“natural”) exposure to crocidolite resulted from mining and
processing activities. Several studies have been made of the people living in and
around Wittenoom, Western Australia, which was the location of a crocidolite operation
for over twenty years. Although the operation was closed down in 1966 and not all
residents worked in the local industry, these studies have shown significantly higher
levels of mesothelioma among this group64,65
.
Patches of crocidolite have been found in the surface soils of the Da-Yao region of
Southwestern China66
. In addition to Wittenoom and Da-Yao, crocidolite has been
reported in the following areas of the world:
Africa:
• Madagascar (Fiantarantsoa Province, Narsasuk)
• South Africa (Transvaal)
Australia:
• North Mt. Lofty Ranges*
• South Flinders Range*
Europe:
• Austria (Puchberg am Scneeburg, Wienem and Klosterthal)
• Germany (Franconian Forest, Diabase Outcrops)
North America:
30

31. • Greenland (Kitaa Province, Narssârssuk)
• Ontario (Renfrew County, Clear Lake)
• Arizona (Roskruge and Sierrita Mountain Ranges)
• California (Marin County, Covelo area of Mendocino County, San
Bernardino Co. Mountain Pass District)
• Colorado (Fremont County, Road Gulch area)
• Massachusetts (Norfolk County, Quincy Area)
• Montana (Lincoln County, Libby area)
• New Hampshire (Carroll County, Conway area)
• New Jersey (Morristown and Bernards Township areas)
• New York (Orange County, also Putnam County around Brewster)
• Pennsylvania (Philadelphia area around Fairmont Park and Frankford)
• Rhode Island (Providence County, Cumberland area)
• Utah (Green River Formation in Duchesne County)
• Virginia (Grayson County)
• Wisconsin (Marathon County)67
_________________________________________
* denotes undocumented report
Tremolite: This variety of asbestos is very common; the database at Mindat.org lists
over one thousand locations worldwide where tremolite is known or believed to be in the
ground68
.
Tremolite was first identified in 1789 by J. G. Höpfner, who named it for the Tremola
Valley of Switzerland from where his specimen was reported to have come69
. The
primary elements that make up tremolite are calcium, magnesium and silicon; it is the
result of metamorphic action on sediments with large amounts of dolomite and quartz,
which may account for its relative abundance in the earth’s crust70
. In appearance and
luster, it is vitreous and silky, with a color that ranges from white to dark green.
Tremolite has never had any real commercial value; primarily, it is a known contaminant
of other substances, the most notable example of which is vermiculite. It has been
found, or is believed to exist in almost every country. However, it is virtually always
localized around a mining or ore-processing operation.
What’s The Real Risk?
Those who live in, or are planning to travel in any of the areas listed in the above
sections should understand that, although these various types of asbestos fibers are
known or believed to be present, these are extremely localized exposures, most often
connected with mining or some related activity. The chances of residents or casual
travelers being exposed to harmful levels of asbestos fibers are quite small.
31

32. The exception is rural areas of the Anatolian Plain in eastern Turkey, where asbestos
fibers in the soil have created major health problems in local residents for decades.
According to researchers in the Department of Chest Diseases in Ankara, tremolite
deposits have long been accessed by rural residents of Central and Southeastern
Anatolia.
In addition, there are three villages in the Cappadocia region (a part of Turkey) known
as “zeolite villages.” Zeolite, also known as erionite, is a fibrous mineral that is not
classified as asbestos. It nonetheless appears to exacerbate the effects of tremolite;
malignant mesothelioma is the cause of over fifty percent of the deaths in these
villages71
. Cappadocia is known for its spectacular and unique geological formations,
and is a popular tourist destination. Asbestos exposure is not a high danger for casual
travelers, but those planning to visit the area should inquire with local health authorities
and take reasonable precautions.
32

33. Special Section: World Trade Center 9/11
Over three thousand people died on September 11, 2001 – but they weren’t the last
victims of the 9/11 attacks.
Within weeks, first responders and rescue workers were reporting a range of respiratory
problems. One woman, an emergency medical technician, contracted mesothelioma—
an illness that normally takes several decades to run its course—and died from it within
five years.
Today, inhabitants of Brooklyn—the borough directly downwind of the World Trade
Center—are suffering from respiratory problems at a significantly higher rate than
residents in other parts of New York City.
The fact is that the towers’ collapse was only the beginning of an ongoing tragedy that
will affect New Yorkers for decades to come.
Origin of the Twin Towers
The World Trade Center was actually a complex of seven buildings, of which Numbers
One and Two were the most prominent. The buildings’ origins go back to 1960, when
the Lower Manhattan Association, chaired by David Rockefeller (whose brother Nelson
was then the state governor), conceived the idea.
The buildings were designed by prominent Japanese-American architect Minoru
Yamasaki, and engineered by Leslie Robertson; development was under the auspices
of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey72
.
Construction began in 1966, and continued for seven years. As the towers were
constructed, large amounts of an “asbestos-laden slurry” known as Monokote, were
sprayed on the steel beams in order to make the building more fire-resistant73
.
Monokote, which was manufactured by W.R. Grace & Company, was marketed as an
“asbestos-free” flame retardant insulation material, despite the fact that twelve percent
of it consisted of asbestos fibers74
.
The Selikoff Reports
What asbestos regulation exists today in the U.S. is due largely to the efforts of the late
Dr. Irving J. Selikoff (b. 1915, d. 1992). His research into the effects of asbestos on the
human respiratory system was instrumental in an asbestos ban by the New York City
Department of Air Resources. On 13 May 1970, this agency issued a ban on the use of
all asbestos sprays.
33

34. By this time however, over five thousand tons of Monokote had been used in the
Towers’ construction75
. It is also now apparent that additional asbestos insulation was
installed by hand after the ban76,77
.
In 1973, a new federal agency established under the Nixon Administration, known as
the Environmental Protection Agency, had issued the same ban on asbestos sprays as
had New York City three years earlier. Then as now, corporate lobbyists were busily
pressuring members of Congress to “water down” any and all legislation that would
protect ordinary citizens. In the case of the EPA regulation, the result of this lobbying
was the establishment of what became known as the “Grace Rule,” which allowed any
product containing no more than one percent asbestos to be marketed as “asbestos
free.” This rule is still in place today; Monokote is still manufactured by W.R. Grace &
Company and sold as an “asbestos-free” insulation product.
An Aging Dinosaur
By the 1990s, the World Trade Center had suffered a fire and a bombing, and it was
becoming apparent that the WTC was rapidly becoming obsolete. According to author
Eric Darton, the cost of needed updates and renovations were as much as $700
million78
. The main reason: asbestos abatement. In 2005, investigative reporter Robert
Scheer wrote:
“For years, the Port Authority treated the building like an aging dinosaur,
attempting on several occasions to get permits to demolish the building for
liability reasons, but being turned down due to the known asbestos
problem. Further, it was well-known the only reason the building was still
standing until 9/11 was because it was too costly to disassemble the twin
towers floor by floor"79
.
When the Towers came down, the collapse released over four hundred thousand metric
tons of asbestos fibers into the air over lower Manhattan80
.
The First Responders
Over four thousand firefighter, police officers and emergency medical technicians
ultimately arrived on the scene. The acts of heroism on that day are well-documented.
What is not as well-documented is the fact that within three weeks, many of these men
and women were suffering from a wide variety of respiratory problems.
New Yorkers were not unaware of the asbestos dangers; the results of air tests by
health authorities clearly showed high levels of asbestos fibers. Nonetheless, Rudy
Giuliani, mayor of New York City at the time, assured the residents, declaring that the
“air quality is safe and acceptable.”81
34

35. Less than a week later, first responders and Ground Zero workers started to show up at
the Irving J. Selikoff Center at Mount Sinai Medical Center, complaining of respiratory
illnesses. In the ensuing months, the six doctors who staffed this small, underfunded
clinic were overwhelmed with respiratory cases. In the meantime, the Federal
Emergency Management Agency provided nothing in the way of financial assistance.
The tragedy was compounded by the fact that FEMA failed to fund research or tracking
of victims82
.
Six Years Later
Asbestos fibers are capable of floating in the air for months. They covered not only
Manhattan, but also the borough of Brooklyn, which was directly downwind. Since then,
the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) has issued
recommendations that residents use HEPA (High Efficiency Particulate Air) filtered
vacuum cleaners as well as damp cloths and mops for cleaning their homes. Such
residents are also encouraged to participate in the EPA cleaning/sampling program83
.
However, Manhattan residents are not the only ones who have suffered from the
poisoning. New York Representative Jerry Nadler has taken the EPA to task on this
issue saying: ““People in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Jersey City and Queens are still being
poisoned.”
Statistics bear this out: since September of 2001, asthma complaints in Brooklyn have
gone up by 240%. While the EPA has focused on the cleanup of Lower Manhattan,
Brooklyn and northern Manhattan have virtually been ignored because of an
independent panel’s rejection of the criteria used by that agency for determining
contamination levels.
So far, the federal Department of Health and Human Services has paid out $140 million
to the residents of New York City to help defray health and cleanup expenses. However,
distribution of these funds has been highly questionable. Brooklyn was clearly in the
path of the dust cloud; respiratory problems have increased as a result, and an EPA
survey from 2003 showed that a quarter of all the homes in that borough had been
contaminated to some degree. Despite this, Brooklyn residents have received only a
little over half of the money given to those of the Bronx—which was not in the path of
the dust cloud84
.
Nor is the cleanup in Manhattan completely finished. Although the site of the collapse
has been cleaned up, there is a great deal of debris left on the rooftops of buildings
throughout the area. In 2006, a hazmat worker left her job because of the asbestos
danger and the fact that her supervisor berated her for wearing a respirator85
, indicating
that a great deal of denial and cover-up is still going on.
35

36. The Bad News
In the immediate aftermath of the collapse of the WTC buildings, there was virtually no
meaningful effort on the part of any government agency to collect and track health
information on the first responders and workers from the site, nor was there any offer of
medical treatment. The staff of the Selikoff Clinic made a prodigious effort in keeping
records on some twenty thousand of these workers, but because of the shortage of time
and resources, not all of this information may be accurate.
According to an article in the U.K. Guardian, by the summer of 2004, half of the workers
at Ground Zero who were screened had some type of long-term health problem.
Additional health statistics that were published at the same time indicated that seventy-
eight percent of those workers were then experiencing respiratory problems—which
should come as no surprise, since it is now known, contrary to the assurances of Rudy
Giuliani, that the asbestos levels at the WTC were twenty-two times greater than those
in Libby, Montana—home of the W.R. Grace and Company asbestos mines86
.
Today, New York City is facing thousands of lawsuits from asbestos victims.
Unfortunately, a substantial number of these suits could be compromised by the
inaccuracy of records kept by the harried and overburdened staff of the Selikoff Clinic87
.
The Good News
In 2006, current NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg finally asked for a panel to study the
health impacts of the WTC collapse and issue recommendations that would make sure
that everyone whose health has suffered (or may develop problems in the future) as a
result of the buildings’ collapse, would “get the first-rate care they deserve.” In addition,
the panel, which represents all New York City agencies that work with those current and
potential victims, would begin coordinating their efforts more efficiently.
The recommendations that came out of the panel study include:
• Available treatment to all who require it (workers and residents)
• Pressuring the federal government to fund expansion of local treatment centers
• Establishment of a “standard of care” for WTC victims
• Expansion of outreach programs through the Office of Emergency Management
• Re-opening of the federally funded Victim Compensation Fund88
.
Recently, Governor Eliot Spitzer and the New York State Legislature passed law
S.4067/A.4940. Effective as of 3 July 2007, this law has extended the deadline by which
those who volunteered and/or worked at the WTC on 11 September 2001 must register
in order to be eligible for Worker’s Compensation benefits. Registrants need not be ill at
present; Worker’s Compensation Board Chairperson Donna Ferrara says, “We want to
make sure they preserve their eligibility should they become ill in the future.” This
legislation is an amendment to the current worker’s compensation law #162.
36

37. Anyone who participated in rescue, recovery and/or clean-up now has until 14 August
2008 to file Form WTC-12 in order to be able to claim benefits should they contract any
asbestos-related disease in the future. The form is available at
http://www.wcb.state.ny.us89
. Currently, David Handschuh of the New York Press
Photographers Association is lobbying the New York State Legislature to extend this
coverage to members of the press and media as well90
.
Conclusion
According to the WTC Health Panel, costs to evaluate and treat all workers and
residents affected by the collapse of the WTC may reach $392 million per year “for the
foreseeable future.” This does not take into consideration any costs involved in treating
those with latent, chronic conditions such as asbestosis and mesothelioma.
The federal government has dragged its heels in funding such programs. Meanwhile,
New York’s Congressional delegation continues to push for more federal funding; NY
Representatives Carolyn Maloney, Jerrold Nadler and Vito Fossella have introduced
H.R. 3543, the 9/11 Health and Compensation Act. This legislation would guarantee the
right of all those exposed to WTC toxins to receive health monitoring and treatment,
including residents, workers and all volunteers91
.
The WTC Health Panel has also established a comprehensive informational website at
http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/wtc/html/home/home.shtml.
37

38. Special Section: Libby, Montana
Some have said that this idyllic small town nestled in the picturesque mountain country
of northwestern Montana is “Ground Zero” for asbestos victims.
In fact, Libby is more than that. It is a microcosm of what happens when corporations
put profits ahead of everything, including human life. The story of what happened to the
people of Libby at the hands of one of these corporations has been the subject of a
series of investigative news articles spanning seven years, a 332-page book and two
documentary films.
What follows is a condensed version of a history made all the more tragic by the fact
that it might have been avoided.
“Thar’s Gold in Them Hills!”
The town of Libby (pop. 2,626 according to the 2000 census) is located along U.S.
Highway 2 in the Kootenai Valley, about seventy miles northeast of Spokane,
Washington. The same geologic forces that built the spectacular Cabinet and Purcell
Ranges of the Rocky Mountains left a plethora of mineral wealth which would ultimately
come to define the community that would grow along the banks of the Kootenai River.
The earliest humans to explore the valley were the Kootenai and Blackfoot Indians, who
were attracted by the colorful sedimentary rocks, which they used to make ceremonial
pipes.
The earliest European to see the Kootenai Valley was probably British-Canadian
explorer David Thompson in 1809. He was followed by several who would build trading
outposts for the two major fur companies, Northwest and Hudson’s Bay, over the next
half-century.
From 1860 onward, mining became increasingly important. While only one significant
gold vein was found in the region, silver and lead operations eventually made over $1.2
million up through 1912.
Meanwhile, ranchers and land speculators began to build homesteads along Libby
Creek during the late 1880s, hoping to cash in when the Great Northern railroad was
built. Their hopes were realized when the first freight train rolled into the new town of
Libby on 3 May 1892. This created much easier access to the Kootenai Valley, bringing
more residents; a major lumber mill came into existence to meet the demand for
building materials92
.
38

39. The Turning Point
Edward Alley was one of those early ranchers, as well as an entrepreneur and a bit of
an adventurer. One day in 1916, while Alley was exploring a played-out mine at nearby
Rainy Creek, his torch brushed the ceiling and he heard a “popping” noise.
The noise was caused by a mineral called vermiculite. Chemically similar to clay, this
substance would literally “pop” when heat was applied, turning into a material that was
soft and absorbent. Alley wasn’t sure what he had discovered, but he was certain there
was a market for it.
In 1919, Alley purchased the old Rainy Creek Mine and built a processing plant. Over
the next sixteen years, he earned a huge return on his investment. Zonolite was being
used all over the country as a building material. Unknown to Alley, however, his
vermiculite—by itself, sterile and non-toxic—was contaminated by a substance that
would prove deadly.
That substance was tremolite—a form of asbestos, the fibers of which acted like tiny
needles when inhaled, burrowing their way into the tissues of the lungs. By 1935, those
fibers had done their work on those of Alley; he died that year, a victim of the very
industry he had started93
.
In 1939, the late Alley’s operation was acquired by another corporation and remained
the Universal Zonolite Insulation Company. A quarter-century later, Universal Zonolite
was sold again, this time to W. R. Grace and Company.
The Cover-up
Medical science had long known of the connection between respiratory illness and
asbestos; an 1897 study by Italian physicians attributed the diseases suffered by
asbestos weavers to the material with which they worked94
. As early as 1956, the
Montana Board of Health noted that "asbestos dust in the air is of considerable
toxicity…inhalation of asbestos dust must be expected sooner or later to produce
pulmonary fibrosis.”95
Glenn Taylor had started working at Universal Zonolite in 1940. By 1959, he was
diagnosed with asbestosis, a degenerative condition caused by the build-up of scar
tissue in the lungs.
The fact that management at W. R. Grace and Company was fully aware of these
dangers is demonstrated by the fact that from the time the corporation took over the
Zonolite mines 1963, worker health was being monitored. Dr. William Little, who took
the initial chest x-rays of workers, said that he had found “lung abnormalities… far in
excess of what one would find in examining the normal population."96
39

40. According to internal corporate memos, only Grace company management and the
company doctors were aware of these conditions. By 1969, these x-rays showed that
nearly fifty of the workers who had been on the job for ten to twenty years had
contracted some sort of lung disease; among those who had been there twenty-one to
twenty-five years, those figures were nearly double. The results of these x-rays were not
shared with the workers, however97
.
Willful Negligence
A letter from W. R. Grace’s insurer, Maryland Casualty Co., said: "When an X-ray
picture shows a change for the worse, that person must be told…failure to do so is not
humane and is in direct violation of federal law."98
The company began to issue cheap respirators to its workers, but these were
ineffective; asbestosis victim Les Skramstad, whose wife and two children also have the
disease, said that “most of the time that they clogged up within minutes.” Leroy Thom,
former union president agreed: "If you had a respirator on … pretty soon it was clogged
up, so you just took it off."99
Nonetheless, W. R. Grace officials minimized the problem, saying that the dust was
“tremolite, not asbestos…[which] was not hazardous.”100
Meanwhile, an internal memo
written by company safety supervisor Peter Kostic suggested that workers whose x-rays
indicated illness be reassigned to “less dusty jobs.” It not only reveals the corporation’s
real concern, but is a perfect reflection of the corporate mentality: "If we minimize their
exposure to dust…chances are we may be able to keep them on the job until they retire,
thus precluding the high cost of total disability."101
One of Kostic’s colleagues added,
"The inclination of public agencies to protect the worker at any expense (usually the
employer's)… should be of considerable concern to us. Our recent experience at
Libby… may well create a significant financial liability."102
Killing Women and Children
Compounding the tragedy is the fact that it wasn’t just the workers who contracted the
disease. Les Skramstad, who died from asbestosis in January of 2007, remembered
working for the mine in the years before Grace took over the operation. In 1959, his
supervisor said, “We have so much asbestos up here, we have to find a market for it. If
we do, we’ll be in business forever.”103
The Zonolite Company manager had workers loading and sifting through large amounts
of asbestos by hand. According to Skramstad, by the time the job was done, workers
would go home covered in asbestos dust, ignorant of the hazard they were taking
home.
40

41. Said Skramstad: “Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I was doing anything to
hurt my family… they gave me a job that had fatal consequences and knowingly let me
take that death home to my wife and kids… what kind of people could do that?”104
Not only did workers bring home the deadly substance home to their families on their
clothing and in their hair, but additionally, the company’s stacks emitted tons of
asbestos dust on a daily basis. It settled on school grounds, in people’s yards, in their
laundry and on their vehicles.
Arthur and Helen Bundrock are a typical example of how Grace’s negligence has
destroyed entire families. Arthur died of an asbestos disease in 1999. His wife and four
of their six children—only one of whom worked at the company’s vermiculite plant—
have been diagnosed. His son Bill had asbestos disease even before he was hired at
the plant, and didn’t know it. "Bill had to get a chest X-ray before they hired him. That X-
ray showed he had asbestosis and they never told him,” Helen Bundrock told Seattle
reporter Andrew Schneider.
She went on to say that her husband “…never quit crying for two weeks when I found
out that I had it. And with the children, he just couldn't be consoled.”105
Even the political issues around asbestos have divided families. Jim Racicot, whose
cousin Marc served a term as Montana’s governor and was head of the Republican
National Committee in 2002, says his cousin failed to do all he could have to help the
people of Libby. Racicot’s father and stepfather both died from asbestos106
.
Simple, standard industrial hygiene might have prevented many of those deaths. For
years, workers and the union had asked company management to install showers.
Grace finally complied in 1975, when two showers (for sixty workers per shift) were
installed in the new wet-process mill. More were “promised,” but without pressure from a
government agency, the corporation had no motivation to follow through on that
promise.
John Wardell, who coordinated EPA operations in Montana in 1999, simply said: "We
are not responsible if the workers went home before being properly decontaminated and
brought asbestos into their homes. That's a personal issue."107
Reckoning
Once it was obvious that asbestos, via corporate neglect, was killing the people of
Libby, the wheels of justice turned slowly. Many of the conservative elements in Libby
who were not affected criticized those who wanted to bring action against Libby for
stirring up trouble. In the meantime, behavior on the part of various federal, state and
local agencies was reminiscent of a Monty Python film. The only issue upon which
these various agencies could agree was that their own agency wasn’t responsible.
41

42. Meanwhile, the EPA fined W. R. Grace (which closed the mine in 1990) for improper
dismantling of some asbestos-encased equipment, but did nothing to analyze the
effects of asbestos waste and vermiculite in and around the town108
. Of the 187 cases
against Grace filed since 1984, 120 were still pending fifteen years later; the district
court would only hear four cases a year109
.
All the while, W.R. Grace did all it could to hinder investigations and avoid responsibility,
including filing for bankruptcy in 2001—despite the fact that the corporation was still
quite profitable and paid its executives seven-figure salaries.
Thanks largely to a series of articles by Andrew Schneider that appeared in the Seattle
Post-Intelligencer in 1999 and 2000 (many of which provided material for this section),
the entire nation started to notice what was happening.
Justice
Libby has since been designated as an EPA “Superfund” site, making it eligible for
cleanup funds from a federal trust fund.
Meanwhile, although the W. R. Grace company itself may be dodging its responsibilities
toward Libby, the men who run the corporation may not. In February 2005, the Justice
Department filed criminal conspiracy charges against seven corporate officers in federal
court.
This case was temporarily halted when Chief U.S. District Court Judge Donald Molloy
hamstrung the prosecution’s case. Judge Molloy dismissed a charge of “knowing
endangerment,” restricted the use of medical records, barred the use of witness
testimony by the prosecution, and limited the definition of asbestos to what is contained
in what he derisively called the EPA’s “civil regulatory scheme”110
.
Molloy’s rulings were successfully appealed in the summer of 2007, and the trial—
expected to last several months—will start in the fall. According to federal officials, the
case against the W. R. Grace company could be among the “most significant criminal
indictments in U.S. history.”111
What of Libby?
Meanwhile, Libby residents continue to contract asbestos diseases at an alarming rate.
The bill for health care costs for asbestos victims could go as high as $1.5 billion in the
coming years112
. And, because of the latency period of asbestos diseases, the sickness
and death may afflict a third generation of Libby residents; it may be another quarter
century or more before the plague begins to subside.
42

43. If the tragedy ultimately results in greater corporate responsibility and wider public
awareness of the public health hazards posed by asbestos, the asbestos victims of
Libby will not have died in vain.
43