Aesbestos

What is aesbestos?

Well let's take a step back and define what vermiculite is.

According to the EPA, Vermiculite is a naturally occurring mineral that looks flaky and shiny, similar to the mineral: mica. When heated to a high temperature, flakes of vermiculite expand as much as 8-30 times their original size. This form of the vermiculite is light, fire-resistant, and odorless and can be very fine sized to coarse-sized pieces an inch long.

http://nabnyc.blogspot.com/2010/06/ask-sick-and-mourning-people-of-libby.html

In my Environmental Geoscience class, I learned about an unbelievable story about the how greedy and selfish people can be. In the beautiful state of Montana in a small town called Libby, there was a big boom in the economy as W.R.Grace Co. bought the Zonolite vermiculite mine in 1963. They employed many from the community and the vermiculite mined was used for a variety of products such as insulation. "A mine near Libby, Montana, was the source of over 70 percent of all vermiculite sold in the U.S. from 1919 to 1990. There was also a deposit of asbestos at that mine, so the vermiculite from Libby was contaminated with asbestos. Vermiculite from Libby was used in the majority of vermiculite insulation in the U.S. and was often sold under the brand name Zonolite" (from EPA website).

http://mesotheliomadoc.wordpress.com/2011/08/18/tremolite-asbestos/

Because it was used in so many products and came home on the miners' clothing, the whole family was affected. I have cleaned up a few buildings with this type of insulation and not only is it disgusting, but it is dangerous and a face mask does absolutely nothing to keep you from inhaling it. Anyway, this began seriously affecting these people, especially the miners, who were paid well, but were dying off like flies. Then their wives and kids began dying and the community knew something was up. They filed almost 200 civil actions against Grace Co., but of course, the W.R. Grace Co. had known from the very beginning what they were doing and they never told the people or have the heart to stop it according to DemocracyNow! Neither did the government. They were dying from asbestos poisoning and the law was not there for the people, but for those with the bigger pockets. Tremolite is one of the rarest and most toxic forms of asbestos because it has needle-like and sharp fibers that can penetrate the lungs to cause pleura, mesothelioma, or asbestosis, which kills the victim by engulfing the lungs or a heart condition.

This area had to be cleaned up as a Superfund site and the mine was closed in 1990, but federal officials did not begin examining the hazards in Libby until 1999, when the Seattle Post-Intelligencer published a series of articles first revealed the story. In the first article, journalist Andrew Schneider wrote, quote, "It takes anywhere from ten to forty years from the time a person is exposed to dangerous amounts of asbestos for the diseases to reveal themselves. So in Libby, the killing goes on (New Danger Found)". I think it is awful for people to not be protected by their own local and federal governments. It is a scary thought how the law can be ignored or used wrongly against us and I am in complete disagreement with any situation in which this occurs. In a previous blog Acid Mine Drainage, I mentioned another as horrible event that was harmful to the community, but allowed to happen by the government because of the bigger companies.

Read More:
Petroleum
http://nabnyc.blogspot.com/2010/06/ask-sick-and-mourning-people-of-libby.html
History of Libby, Montana
http://www.libbymt.com/community/history.htm#mining
Libby Vermiculite 
http://www.geo.wvu.edu/~lang/Geol484/Libby%20Vermiculite%20and%20Asbestos.pdf