Libby Letters Are No Joke

Helena Independent Record
Published September 27, 2005

Some Libby residents can joke about it - "I've been cured by Grace. It's a miracle!" said Bob Stickney - but letters sent to some 700 people diagnosed with asbestos-related diseases are no laughing matter. The letters, mailed by HNA/Triveras, which administers a medical plan for W.R. Grace and Company, told recipients they don't have an asbestos disease or may not be as sick as they thought. Grace operated a vermiculite mine near Libby until 1991, and health authorities have blamed asbestos from the mine for the deaths of about 200 residents and the illness of more than 800 people who are enrolled in a medical plan funded by Grace. The company has denied having anything to do with the medical audit that resulted in the letters, but people in Libby can be excused for wondering whether Grace, which is operating under bankruptcy protection, is trying to shirk its obligations. Dr. Alan Whitehouse of Libby's Center for Asbestos Related Disease said the plan administrator appears to have used medical guidelines developed for people exposed to a different type of asbestos. Letters telling people in Libby they don't have asbestosis are "nonsense," he said. Nonsensical they may be, but the letters still threaten to curtail agreed-upon medical care for sick people. Instead of merely distancing itself from the so-called audit, the Grace should quickly repudiate it.