Asbestos-Asbestosis Books

The plight of the people of Libby and the other sites around the country is very sad and you want to hate WR Grace and the previous mine owners and operators. While their reponsibility is not in doubt, the book could have been improved by more information about what exactly they knew and when. I'm sure Grace et al. did not cooperate with the authors, but the extensive litigation should have made some of this information available.

I am in the middle of this book and I find it very compelling. I was interested in customer reviews and when I read the last review on how the story is not yet complete because many of the victims of this scandal do not have health insurance, I felt compelled to write.

Everyone will be making a profit on this story. WB Grace made their money and now the media will make their money. While I agree that the authors have done a wonderful public service uncovering this environmental disaster, I would like to suggest that a substantial amount of the money made on this book (and the perhaps subsequent movie) could be donated to the victims. If not for their illness, there would be no story. I was recently appalled to learn about the monies that were made by media stars on the Watergate scandal while Deep Throat (whoe courage made it all possible) was not doing quite as well. For the media to make money off these stories without providing for the victims is not right either.

I want you to read this book. It is important to you and your family. I consider myself a knowledgeable person and I don't remember this scandal when it came out in 2000-2001. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that I live in southern CA, but the problems with asbestos effects all of us in the US. Attic insulation, talc products and even gardening/soil products have asbestos risks that have been used and available for sale up into the 1990's and beyond.

I must have read a review or heard one of the authors in an interview...but somehow this book made it onto my "Must Read" list. When I received the book, I questioned why I had gotten it, having forgotten what motivated my interest in the first place. But I started reading and have found this book to be a treasure.

The story is one of deception, corruption and greed on the part of Big Business, in this case the mining business. The owners and executives misled their workers, investors and the government agencies that regulated them into turning a blind eye to the dangers of asbestos in their products.

While the deception of the miners in Libby was unconscionable, the book goes on to document the Bush White House withholding information that the air in and around the World Trade Center was not healthy! Can you imagine, after a tragedy like the WTC disaster, that your own government, that you rallied round to give support, would turn on you and withhold information that the air that you breathe is full of cancer causing dust? Which tragedy is worse?

The book is truly a must-read.

Lastly, I want to point out the courage of the reporters, editors, doctors and the outstanding EPA field workers that fought to get this story out. Whistle-blowers, whose main motivation is to right a wrong, are oftentimes rewarded by getting fired and branded as outcasts. This book is ultimately a story of courage and perserverance of those determined to overcome the obstacles of standing out and doing what's right.

The author Andrew Schneider tells the story of uncovering a scandal of major proportions. It is a frightening, chilling story of hidden dangers allowed by government officials whose jobs are to keep us safe. It is the story of a mineral still used in our country whose lethal dangers were recorded by Pliny the Elder. Asbestos cannot be safely used in any manner.

This book is a masterpiece of investigative journalism - well written, throughly researched and truly in the interests of the public.

The authors do a superb job of combining all the science and politics with a touching picture of the real Americans who ultimately paid and are paying the price for corporate greed and governmental push-overs.

If you read just one book this year, this should be it!

It is avery usefull book to people involved in litigation agaisnt asbestos companies. It allow you to use the long experience in this subject carried out in USA and other countries and the Companies strategies for avoiding their liabilities.

Reading "Forecasting Product Liability Claims" with the eyes of an attorney involved in the management of mass tort litigation settlements is a daunting task because the text contains very detailed statistical formulae and concepts. However, it is the clarity with which the concepts are explained that allows the non-statistician who has interest to follow the logic. Understanding how the statistics professional accumulates and finds understanding in the seemingly unassociated data should give great insight to the legal professional, whether lawyer or judge, who needs to bring individual justice to thousands of claimants. The introduction by Judge Weinstein is the icing on a rich slowly digested cake for the legal professional.
Lawrence Curtis, General Counsel, Mass Tort Settlements Services

The gold standard for asbestos medical litigation information

This catastrophe deserved a more comprehensive treatment. "When one person dies, it is a tragedy. When thousands die, it is war." What happened in Libby, Montana was like war on a population, but this book treats it like several personal tragedies. The W.R. Grace Company is a corporation without a conscience and deserves to be indicted for its crimes, not be allowed to avoid all responsibility by going into and then out of bankruptcy unscathed. The book on what happened in Libby still needs to be written.

Andrea Peacock did an excellent job of describing the
environmental disaster that has ravaged this small
Montana town.

Peacock's description of human suffering,
corporate greed, and "bought" politicians brings
this true story to life.

Highly recommended reading.

Truth be told, asbestos will not kill 100% of everybody. Consider these stats: Industrial accidents comprise 1.1 million deaths, which exceeds the average annual deaths from road accidents (999,000), war (502,000), violence (563,000) and HIV/AIDS (312,000). Of this total deaths from asbestos exposure equals about 100,000 (9% of all industrial accidents, and only 2.9% of the total deaths above).

Yet the mesothelioma lobby would want you to believe that asbestos--which is a mineral known since ancient times--will kill everybody unless it's totally removed.

This reporter tries to ape Aron Brockovitch, and plays up to the hype. In fact, it gives just one side of the story. The other side is this: the people at Libby supported asbestos while the going was good, yet when demand died down, they turned against it. You cannot have your cake and eat it too. Harsh but true. BTW, I have nothing against cancer sufferors, just pointing out that there's a lobby of lawyers who make a killing filing lawsuits on behalf of mesothelioma victims. And this book plays to that lobby.

As a former Libby resident (1976-1982) and one who has since found out that I am one of the 'victims', I was looking forward to reading "Libby Montana". I was hoping for a journalist's straight forward and honest appraisal of the Libby tragedy.
Instead, I found myself reading a series of disconnected thoughts and needless ramblings - sprinkled with a lot of overworked sentimentality. I personally know (or knew) many of the folks named in the book. Instead of writing from a true journalist's viewpoint, Andrea Peacock instead presents a verbal 'Oprah Winfrey' show. She wanders back and forth through history with no really coherent thought process and hopes that by throwing in an occassional tear-jerking story now and then she will keep the reader interested. She has managed to turn would could have been an excellent documentary into a soap opera and by doing so only belittles the overall magnitude of the Libby disaster.

I was born in this town, Libby, Montana. Eventhough I grew up eighteen miles away in Troy, I knew most of the families mentioned in the book. My high school field trip was a day trip to the mine, the dry processing plant, the expansion plant, the loading docks. All through junior high and high school, we had track meets next to the railroad tracks where the trains were loaded with the ore. What she says in her book is true, no one told anyone that the ore was harmful, or even had asbestos in it. No one said a word, and if anyone asked, they were told it was "nuisance dust." It was such a cover-up that I had to read the Seattle PI account twice before I believed it.
I applied for a job at the mine when I went to college. That was thirty years ago. If I had gotten that job, chances are I would be dead, just like my father. Dad never worked at the mine, but he drove by it several times a week to maintain some radio equipment on top of the mountain. Several times a week for twenty-six years and he died of Mesothelioma.