August 2001: Study Finds 30 Percent of Adults near Vermiculite Mine Have Lung Problems

An environmental health study, the largest in US history, finds that as many as 30 percent of the 5,590 adult residents tested in Libby, Montana have lung abnormalities (see November 21, 1999). This figure is as much as 150 times greater than what is normal for people with no known asbestos exposure. All of the tested adults had at one time worked or lived in Libby before the W.R. Grace Co. vermiculite mine closed in 1990. [Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 8/24/2000]