The Utah Department of Health has concluded that people who lived within two miles of two old vermiculite plants with heavy asbestos contamination in Salt Lake City have a fifty percent greater chance of developing lung cancer than people who live in other parts of the state. While the data didn't conclusively establish a causative relationship between the asbestos contamination and the lung cancer incidents, the high correlation rate has prompted the state to become more concerned about the potential health risks posed by these old plants. Two years ago the state, along with federal agencies, spent more than $7 million in a Superfund cleanup of the two plants.

Utah's Department of Environmental Quality, in partnership with the EPA, is now launching a search for people who have worked at the plant or lived in the surrounding neighborhoods.

The vermiculite plants received their stock from Libby, Montana, whose vermiculite mining industry was destroyed when large-scale asbestos contamination was discovered in its vermiculite ore mine in 1990. There have been more than 200 asbestos-related casualties from the mine itself, and many others have been sickened by the asbestos exposure. The EPA declared Libby, Montana to be the "worst-case of community-wide exposure to a toxic substance in U.S. History." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libby,_Montana)

Labels: asbestos, LungCancer, mesothelioma