$8 million health-risk plan introduced
The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry and Environmental Protection Agency announced an $8 million health-risk research program to address gaps in the understanding of long-term health effects of exposure to asbestos in Libby.
The ATSDR Libby Amphibole Health Risk Initiative, announced during Wednesday’s Lincoln County Commissioner’s meeting, will be funded for five years and seeks to enhance available medical research, while exploring uncharted medical research for lower levels of exposure.
“It’s a fairly unprecendeted program,” said Dr. David Williamson, director of Division of Health Studies. “We want to develop research in response to the community.”
ATSDR will accept proposals from major universities that specialize in research of asbestos amphibole, such as Harvard University, University of Washington and University of Cinncinati.
Once a university is selected, it will be expected to set up a research infrastructure in Libby and work closely with the CARD Clinic and community, according to representatives from ATSDR.
The government agency hopes a university will be awarded the project and set up in Libby by early 2009.
Studies are expected to be released within the first few years, though the program is expected to last five years.
And other scientific agencies will be involved in the research, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other federal programs.
Results from the research program will feed into and update the Tremolite Asbestos Registry, a nationwide database of research regarding the medical effects of asbestos. Research will target lower levels of exposure to address gaps in this database related to topics such as childhood exposure, damage to parts of the body other than lungs and asbestos disease progression.
ATSDR believes that this research will not only help this community, but the entire country because vermiculite mined in Libby was packaged and sent to over 200 sites in the United States.
“We’re very excited about this and we look forward to serving the community in this way,” said Dr. Williamson.