Senators need to work for permanent asbestos ban

Montana’s two U.S. Senators, Jon Tester and Steve Daines, highlighted Asbestos Awareness Week. Their article appeared April 3 in The Western News, especially honoring the many people who are ill and have passed away painfully suffering from various illnesses due to asbestos exposure.

While I appreciate their kind comments and concern for Libby folks, I was heartbroken when I read the following excerpt from their article: “While asbestos is no longer mined in Libby and no longer legally used in manufacturing, in America, Black said, “it’s important to keep up the campaign for awareness…Asbestos is still mined and used in products in other places around the world. The diseases are still there. They keep happening. People need to be aware of this. It’s another preventable disease we could wipe off the books if we go after it.” 

According to the EPA website, many products are made using asbestos here in the United States, but not in Libby. 

There is a widespread misconception about asbestos in the USA. Most people believe that the government banned asbestos. It is not illegal, as many people think. It was banned for a brief period of time, but the ban on asbestos was overturned in 1989 and it is still used in many products that are made and used in the USA. 

According to the EPA’s website, a number of products containing asbestos are currently legal in the United States, including construction and automotive products, among others.

In order for Asbestos Awareness Week to be truly effective, our senators need to do their homework and then join Sen. Patty Murray from Washington State and others in getting asbestos permanently banned so others do not go through the anguish and pain that Lincoln County residents have endured for most of the past century.

There is too much misinformation out there about asbestos. Libby cannot have endured all it has, lost so many people over so many years, only to have the rest of the country thinking America is safe from asbestos illnesses and deaths. 

Libby’s cleanup efforts are a wonderful thing. People can again feel safe here, come and enjoy the beautiful lakes, rivers, forests and big blue skies in the most beautiful place I have ever known. In the meantime, the rest of America cannot continue being exposed to asbestos products used in automobiles and construction. These tainted products may very well be marketed in Libby as we speak. And that is more than just unfair. It is criminal.

 H.M. Bowker is a former resident of Libby and author of I Can’t Breathe!