Les Skramstad died Sunday. He was 70.

I often complain about how workplace fatalities get very little press. Every couple of weeks, Tammy and I publish the Weekly Toll, a partial list of workers killed in the workplace. But that list includes only those workers killed in traumatic accidents -- falls, trench collapses, traffic accidents, etc. It almost never includes the almost 1000 Les Skramstads who die of workplace related disease, like mesothelioma, every week.

But Les Skramstad was more than just another occupational disease fatality.

Skramstad had been diagnosed with mesothelioma _ a rare, fast-moving cancer that attacks the lining of the lungs _ about a month ago, his son said. He had several tumors in his stomach and had been previously diagnosed with asbestosis, which has been compared to a slow, constant suffocation.

He was best known as a voice for many of Libby's sickened residents. He lobbied Congress for financial relief for those who could not pay their many medical bills.

The vermiculite, used in a variety of household products, contained tremolite asbestos that was released into the air and carried home on miners' clothing. It is blamed by some health authorities for killing about 200 people and sickening one of every eight Libby residents. Skramstad worked at the mine in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Brent Skramstad said that he has also developed asbestos-related disease, as did his sister and his mother, Norita.

"Hopefully there's somebody who will take his place now," Skramstad said of his father. "Because this is something you never want to be dropped. You want people to be held accountable for it."

In 2005, the Justice Department indicted the W.R. Grace & Co. and seven of its current or former executives and department heads for conspiring to conceal information about the hazardous nature of the company’s asbestos contaminated vermiculite products, obstructing the government’s clean-up efforts, and wire fraud. Approximately 1,200 residents of Libby have been identified as suffering from some kind of asbestos-related disease and over 400 have died.

Meanwhile, the Baltimore Sun's Andrew Schneider, who originally broke the Libby story, reports that despite the tens of millions of dollars spent by the Enfironmental Protection Agency to clean up the town, there no one is sure if the town can really be cleaned up enough to be safe. Some residents are now suggesting that the EPA or Grace buy them out so that they can move to a safer location.

Talk of a buyout took hold after the EPA's inspector general said in a report last month that, because the agency has not determined the safe level of human exposure to the asbestos in Grace's vermiculite, the "EPA cannot be sure that the ongoing Libby cleanup is sufficient to prevent humans from contracting asbestos-related diseases."

The IG report also said the EPA must "fund and execute a comprehensive study to determine the effectiveness of the Libby cleanup" with special attention on the effects of asbestos exposure on children.

Paul Peronard, the EPA emergency coordinator who has been involved in the cleanup since the beginning in 1999, said, "The EPA has no plans for a mass relocation or buyout, although the concept is not off the table. Right now the judgment is the community would be better served by fixing the problem in place."

However, he added, "There is a possibility that our analytical methods are not sensitive enough to measure down low enough to say there is no risk, and with this type of asbestos we cannot say that we ultimately will know what level will be deemed acceptable."

Meanwhile, Grace, which declared bankruptcy in 2001, has been studying the costs and benefits of a buyout.

Related Stories

• In A "Go To Jail Issue" Asbestos Manufacturers Fight To Stay Free, April 22, 2006
  
• Hallelujah: Grace Miraculously Cures Asbestos Victims, November 4th, 2005
  
• Grace's Deadly Asbestos Tentacles Continue To Reach Across The Country, October 2, 2005
• Lessons of Hamilton, New Jersey, June 29, 2005
• Grace Knew About Asbestos Contamination of NJ Plant, June 28, 2005
• Attorney for Grace To Head EPA Enforcement, June 27, 2005
• W.R. Grace: Did These Guys Ever Tell The Truth?, March 4, 2005
• Asbestos: Cruel, Deadly and Uncompensated, February 19, 2005
• Libby Montana and Tort Deform: What's Wrong With This Picture?: February 15, 2005
• They Were Killing Us, They Were Killing Our Wives and Children: February 12, 2005
• W.R. Grace Goes To Jail: "Why not all the others?": February 10, 2005
• W.R. Grace Execs Indicted For Asbestos Coverup, February 8, 2005

Labels: Asbestos, Libby

I’ve often written about the fact that workers getting killed on the job get very little press attention because they die one at a time, and often doing unglamorous work like digging trenches or working in unpleasant factories.

Natural disaster victims often get much more attention. They die in larger numbers in more television-friendly environments: buildings flattened by hurricanes or tornados, fancy houses burned in forest fires.

Over the past week, citizens of Florida have been getting their share of attention due to Hurricane Charlie: more than two dozen killed and massive property damage. Plus, Charlie was considerate enough to strike in a swing state during an election year, drawing lots of attention by politicians – especially those of the bush variety.

Not so for hundreds workers and their families dying of asbestos-related disease in Libby, Montana, which has been designated a Superfund site due to the asbestos pollution bequeathed upon the community by W.R. Grace. (Montana, for those who are not familiar with it, is a thinly populated state in the northwest that has only a few electoral votes that always go Republican.). Unfortunately, being declare a Superfund site ain’t what it used to be. President Bush has proposed cutting EPA funding and the Republicans in Congress are refusing to replenish the formerly polluter-funded Superfund trust fund.

That's why Montana Sen. Max Baucus last fall demanded that EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt travel to Libby for a firsthand look at the problem and to meet the people who so desperately need his agency's full attention. Baucus extracted a promise from Leavitt to visit as a condition for Senate confirmation of his nomination to the top EPA post.

Many people in Libby eagerly looked forward to Leavitt's visit. Townspeople gathered signatures on a resolution beseeching the EPA to do its utmost to execute a speedy and complete cleanup, to follow up with monitoring and provision for unexpected contingencies, and also to help the town emerge out from under the cloud of threat and uncertainty - help toward a more prosperous future. Many residents wrote letters to present to him when he came. They never got the chance.

After twice canceling scheduled visits to the town, Leavitt made a quick, unannounced visit to Libby Aug. 13. EPA staffers awkwardly responded to rumors circulating in advance of his arrival by reading from a short script about "national security concerns" precluding any comment of the administrator's schedule. When he appeared, Leavitt met with only a few folks, for a short while, then he left. We don't know about the people of Libby, but we're disappointed. Sure, the administrator is a busy man. But a lot of folks in Libby are busy too - busy fighting for their lives.

Truth be told, however, it isn't Leavitt's time we want. It's his commitment and his agency's action we need. Short and limited as it was, his recent visit will more than suffice if he follows through and makes certain that the Libby cleanup is fully funded and expeditious, and that the government follows through to help the community and its citizens find a prosperous future.

Did Leavitt stop in Libby merely to put a check on his to-do list? Or did he come really intending to help? His follow-through will provide the answer.

National security concerns? Personally, I think Mr. Leavitt has much more to fear from the good citizens of Libby than he does from Al Qaida. After all, they’ve already been victims of weapons of mass destruction, thanks to W.R. Grace.

More on the tragedy of Libby, Montana here, here and here.

Labels: Asbestos, Libby