Asbestos Interior Abatement Libby Montana 2004 USEPA

This clip shows the effort to remove asbestos contamination from inside homes in Libby. Processed vermiculite from the WR Grace Libby MT Mine contained tremolite, a form of asbestos, that was allowed to contaminate local homes and has caused hundreds of cases of asbestos-related disease in this small mountain town. Since November, 1999, the US EPA has cleaned up the major source areas of contamination around town. US EPA is now cleaning up smaller sources found in a variety of places such as around homes and businesses. EPA conducts stringent clearance sampling after cleanup and has begun some targeted sampling to measure the effectiveness of cleanup several months later. In February 2005, seven executives and managers of W. R. Grace were indicted on ten federal criminal counts of knowingly endangering residents of Libby, and concealing information about the health effects of its mining operations. The defendants are also accused of obstructing the government's cleanup efforts and wire fraud. For more and current information on the asbestos abatement work in Libby, go to the US EPA website at http://www.epa.gov/region8/superfund/libby/ . For more information about asbestos and the proposal to finally ban its use in the US, go to Senator Patty Murrays website http://murray.senate.gov/asbestos/index.cfm . This clip is from the 2004 US EPA video, Libby, Montana: An Asbestos Legacy. The entire video (11:30 minutes) is posted to GoogleVideo and can be viewed and downloaded at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6812852032323913573 . This video is from the ERTW website containing almost 100 free films of environmental cleanup and related issues http://www.ertvideo.org .

Category:

Education

Tags:

• asbestos
• tremolite
• vermiculite
• zonolite
• EPA
• OSHA
• abatement
• removal
• environmental
• hazard
• Libby
• Montana

[brynjartuck]

That's great that they got their homes cleaned, but what about the rest of the millions of homes that still have this stuff in the attic? Most of us don't have the resources for that type of clean up operation.

[markdcatlin]

@brynjartuck Good observation. Unfortunately, the federal agencies have been too slow to address this.

[brynjartuck]

@markdcatlin I wish they would at least warn people when they buy or rent a home, like they do with lead based paint. If I had just been warned I wouldn't have done remodeling projects and had this stuff falling out of my attic into my living space. :(

[DopeOwl]

I would put that shit in my roof just so they can come and do my house cleaning

Mr jeffison this is the third time we have been here this week.

Yeah it just keeps coming back

i think a heap fell down around my toilet

zaaaahhhahhaaaaaa

[musclemanjoe]

Your right about that

[lgados]

what a pile of crap