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MT Senator Max Baucus comments on EPA’s proposed new asbestos standards by Duane Williams, KLCB-KTNY Radio October 2, 2012 Senator Max Baucus has something to say about the EPA standards proposed for Libby Amphibole Asbestos which would declare airborne asbestos concentrations exceeding two-100,000ths of a fiber per cubic centimeter a health risk. Previously, the EPA has used a standard of greater than one-tenth of a fiber per cubic centimeter. The effects of the new standard will be far-reaching outside of Libby, and some question if it is even attainable. It appears to mean going back over sites already visited and "cleaned". "W.R. Grace, in my opinion, knew what it was doing when it traded profits for the lives of the people who worked there – like the miners who came home and hugged their children and contaminated them. The fact that they’d try to block these standards is further evidence that this company thinks it can turn a blind eye to the worst public health disaster in U.S. history. Libby has waited too long for justice and folks there deserve to know that their kids and grandkids won’t be put through what they’ve faced," Senator Baucus said. Baucus has been a long-time champion of asbestos awareness in his efforts to declare the mining tragedy in Lincoln County a public health emergency and make sure folks there have access to the clean-up tools and health care they need, helped save the Center for Asbestos Related Disease clinic, and has dogged the EPA to keep cleanup efforts moving forward. As a the key author of health care reform law, Baucus fought hard to make sure the law included a mechanism for residents of Libby and Lincoln County to access the health care they were entitled to as victims of a public health emergency. As a result, victims of asbestos exposure in Lincoln County began getting care under Medicare in the Spring of 2010. The EPA has spent over $450 million cleaning up Libby alone since 1999 and is not finished. ________________________________________ By Duane Williams, KLCB-KTNY Radio, e-mail: klcb@frontiernet.net.

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