Asbestos Mine, Associated Deaths, Raise Ire of Vermont Residents

During the second full week in January, Vermont Department of Health (VDH) officials visiting towns in the vicinity of a former asbestos mine are advised to bring riot gear. That's just how upset residents are.

The furor arises over a report linking the Vermont Asbestos Group mine to 14 hospitalizations, and five deaths.

Some are calling it a tempest in a teapot. Health Commissioner Wendy Davis, a medical doctor, says the concern is justified. The study may have had limits, but a clear, statistical link between asbestos disease and living in the towns is apparent.

The report, under the auspices of the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources (ANR) and the VDH, analyzed health data from communities within a 10-mile radius of the mine and concluded that potential health effects due to past mining activities warrant additional study.

"The numbers are admittedly small, but when I look at the magnitude, the odds of having this diagnosis (of asbestosis) is three times what it would be if you didn't have that geographic exposure," Davis explained.

The 13 towns surveyed, all around the mine on Belvidere Mountain, showed a strong correlation between the mining activity and an increased risk of asbestos-related diseases

Asbestos is a fibrous mineral that was used in insulation, floor and roofing tiles, tile glues and some ceiling panels up to the 1970s, when health officials began to recognize the dangers. Since then, attempts to ban it entirely have cropped up, first in 1989 (via the Environmental Protection Agency) and most recently in 2008 at the instigation of OSHA and the CDC. Imported products, and the pressure by asbestos manufacturers, continue to deliver toxic asbestos to the American public, but in limited quantities.

Asbestos fibers, inhaled, can cause lesions which lead to a number of diseases, most notably mesothelioma, an almost incurable form of cancer that often doesn't manifest for three or more decades, by which time the prognosis is very poor. Most people who are diagnosed with mesothelioma die within a year.

Mesothelioma is known in medical circles as a "ticking time bomb", and the countdown for residents of Eden, Lowell, and the other 11 towns near Belvidere Mountain has already begun with the diagnoses of asbestosis. The mine closed in 1993; the real bomb - mesothelioma - likely won't go off until 2023 at the earliest.

Davis has expressed the hope that the meetings, rescheduled for January 12 and 13 in Eden and Lowell, will help residents understand the significance of the report. Then Davis plans to ask residents what additional information they would like the VDH to gather

At this time, health officials don't have enough data or input to speculate whether the cases isolated are hikers, former miners, or residents. In the meantime, the report underlines the importance of staying away from mine property, which - though closed to the public - has been used by ATV enthusiasts and other outdoor aficionados.

The warning may come too late for many.

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