Asbestos-tainted town seeks federal help

? In one sense, Les Skramstad is almost jealous of his late neighbor in Libby, Mont. At least that man’s death from cancerous mesothelioma came quickly, he said.

Skramstad is dying of asbestosis, which feels like slow, constant suffocation.

“It’s pretty doggone painful,” he said.

Also challenging, Skramstad said, is watching Congress struggle with legislation that could provide some compensation for all of those sickened by asbestos poisoning in the town of about 2,500 people.

Asbestos released into the air from the now-closed W.R. Grace and Co. vermiculite mine just down the road is blamed by some health authorities for killing about 200 people and sickening one of every eight residents. Skramstad worked at the mine in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Last year, a federal grand jury indicted Grace and some of its executives, saying the company knew it was poisoning people. Grace denies wrongdoing.

Asbestos poisoning victim Les Skramstad and his wife, Norita, left, wait to speak at a conference Feb 10, 2003, in Seattle. A now-closed mine in Libby, Mont. is blamed by some health authorities for killing and sickening many of the town's residents.

On Feb. 14, the bill creating a $140 billion trust fund for asbestos victims – with the money supplied largely by defendant companies and their insurers – stalled in Congress after some conservative senators feared the cost would eventually be passed on to taxpayers.

The legislation included a provision for Libby residents that would pay those who can prove they have asbestos-related diseases up to $1.1 million each.

As Congress has stopped and started on the bill several times, Skramstad and others who are dying of asbestos poisoning say many in Washington don’t understand Libby’s plight.

Of the 150 people he worked with four decades ago, only five are alive, Skramstad said.

The vermiculite mine provided material for various household products, fireproofing and insulation. It was the best job in town, keeping Libby residents employed for decades. But it also blew tremolite asbestos – a particularly hazardous form of the mineral – all over town.

The long, needlelike asbestos tremolite fibers can easily become embedded in human lungs and cause asbestosis, often fatal, or mesothelioma, a rare, fast-moving cancer that attacks the lining of the lungs.