| By :
Wendy Moyer
There's a picturesque town called Libby, Montana that's situated on a bend in the Kootenai River that flows south from Canada and empties into the Columbia River in the United States. The Zonolite Mountains are just east of this very picturesque town. It was in this idyllic setting that an asbestos mine first opened its doors in 1924. Since then it has closed. But when the mine was operational more than 1,900 men were employed by the companies that ran it. These miners mined and processed an amazing amount of asbestos daily. W.R. Grace and Co. bought the mine in 1963. According to their records, almost 500,000 pounds of asbestos went through their "dry mill" every day. The dry mill - the main processing facility - is the dustiest building on the site. Tests have shown that as much as twelve tons of dust were expelled from the dry mill's stack per day. The 24,000 pounds of dust contained approximately 4,800 pounds - nearly two and one half tons - of asbestos. It was not unusual for the dust to cover the walls of the buildings on the site. And when the wind blew towards the town, Libby was also covered with this dust. The asbestos laden dust covered the clothing that hung from the clotheslines. It covered the front yards and patios of the town's homes. It covered the sidewalks and the cars. And it covered the playgrounds that the town's children frolicked in. When any type of asbestos is inhaled it is extremely dangerous. The most deadly asbestos fibers are tremolite. The asbestos in the Zonolite Mountains was comprised of tremolite. Tremolite fibers are sharply pointed and needle like. Consequently, when they are inhaled, they tend to penetrate the lung's lining and irritate the lung's pleura. You can't cough out these fibers. Nor can you wash them out. Over the course of time tremolite fibers scar the lungs and cause a disease known as asbestosis. When someone is the victim of asbestosis the scar tissue that has formed causes their lung to stop functioning as it should. The victim ultimately loses his or her ability to breath. Over the course of time the scar tissue will engulf the lungs completely. When that happens, either the person's lungs stop functioning or their heart becomes so overworked that it stops beating. The Libby mine was closed in 1990. Although the mine was closed, in 1999 twelve to fifteen residents of Libby were being diagnosed with an asbestos related disease such as asbestosis, lung cancer, and mesothelioma per month.
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