Analysis: Libby asbestos health limitations

Health limitations analysis on Libby, MT, asbestos-vermiculite site.

The attorneys at the personal injury law firm of Weitz & Luxenberg have decades of experience defending victim’s rights in practice areas that include: accidents/general injury, dangerous drugs, medical malpractice, and environmental pollutants.

NEWS UPDATE:

Health Limitations Analysis: Although Libby, Montana, has been a fairly stable community over the last 30 years, there have inevitably been "in migration" and "out migration" of individuals who may have been exposed through the mining and milling of asbestos-contaminated vermiculite in the area, thus requiring an analysis of the area’s health limitations.

Population mobility could affect the results of this analysis, particularly if individual mobility was associated with exposure or disease status. Residents could have moved to larger cities like Spokane, Washington, for medical treatment or they could have relocated after the mine and mill closed.

This analysis is limited by the lack of lifestyle information, particularly decedent's smoking history.

If smoking was markedly different in the Libby population than in the comparison populations, the analysis could easily be confounded. Amandus et al. assessed the smoking habits of Libby workers and found that the proportion of current or former smokers was 15% higher than the national average.

However, smoking estimates for Lincoln County from 1990 to 1997 were comparable to state rates according to data from the CDC's Behavioral Risk Factors Surveillance System.

Courtesy of the ATSDR and the CDC