An Environmental Protection Agency declaration and a Supreme Court ruling were two major stories about asbestos that made headlines this week — neither of them good news.

Wednesday the Environmental Protection Agency declared a public health emergency in and near Libby, Mont., where decades of asbestos contamination from a vermiculite mine has left hundreds of people dead or sickened from asbestos-related lung diseases.

They are just two more stories about American corporations’ greed and irresponsibility, and — only tangentially — the people they harm

It was the first health emergency ever declared under the Superfund law, the 1980 statute that governs sites contaminated or threatened by hazardous substances. The Libby site, formerly owned by W.R. Grace & Co., was designated a Superfund priority in 2002.

In the case of the Supreme Court ruling, the court decided for Travelers Companies Inc., one of the largest U.S. property and casualty insurers, saying a lower court erred in overturning the approval of the company’s nearly $500 million settlement of asbestos-related litigation.

The settlement also barred new lawsuits against Travelers stemming from its relationship with Johns Manville Corp.., which had been the country’s largest miner of asbestos and a major manufacturer of asbestos-containing products. The 7-2 vote basically indemnifies Travelers against any future claims for injury or illness caused by Johns Manville asbestos products.

To gain some insight into these stories, Pensito Review interviewed Richard Moyle, national awareness coordinator for the Mesothelioma Cancer Center at Asbestos.com about the significance of these two asbestos-related stories. The Mesothelioma Cancer Center at Asbestos.com is a one-stop resource on all asbestos issues ranging from occupational exposure to mesothelioma doctor locations and treatment options. The center also provides legal information.

Pensito Review: Asbestos has suddenly gotten a lot of media attention because of the Supreme Court’s finding and the EPA’s declaration. Is the mainstream media getting it right about the potential dangers and health effects of asbestos?

Richard Moyle: I obviously haven’t seen all of the stories from the news media, but yes, the articles I have read on the situation seem to be pretty accurate. Basically, all you need to know about asbestos products is that they are generally not harmful unless disturbed or deteriorated in any way.

For example, if you have asbestos insulation in your home, it doesn’t pose a serious danger so long as it stays in good condition and remains behind the walls. If a hole is punched through a wall of a home containing asbestos insulation it could damage the asbestos and send the microscopic fibers into the air where they can then be inhaled or ingested.

PR: What are the short- and long-term health dangers associated with asbestos exposure?

RM: In the short term, the inhalation of asbestos fibers causes nothing more than basic lung irritation. The long-term effects of asbestos are much more serious. One of the most common effects is a condition known as asbestosis. This is a progressive pulmonary disease. This disease is particularly dangerous because symptoms only appear after asbestos fibers have already caused irreversible lung damage.

The other common effect of asbestos exposure is a cancer known as mesothelioma. This type of cancer forms in the mesothelial cells that make up the lining of major organs such as the lungs and the abdomen.

PR: Are there any effective medical treatments available for asbestos exposure and its detrimental health effects?

RM: There are a myriad of treatment options for asbestos-related illnesses, but the earlier the disease is caught, the more effective the treatment. Unfortunately, mesothelioma symptoms do not typically exhibit themselves until 20 to 50 years after exposure has occurred, so by the time the disease is diagnosed, it is usually advanced and treatment options are then limited and less effective.

PR: In the case of Libby, Mont., do you have any idea of what it will take to clean up an entire town contaminated by a vermiculite mine?

RM: The major issue with Libby is that the town is basically covered in asbestos. Piles of asbestos waste from the mine were actually left on the top of a nearby mountain where the wind carried the fibers into the town. There has been a cleanup effort by the EPA going on in Libby since 1999, but only now is government declaring a state of emergency in the town. Asbestos must continue to be removed from the soil and other environmental locations. Many people in Libby also have Zolonite asbestos insulation — one of the most hazardous asbestos products — in their homes. Those houses as well as many other buildings in the town need asbestos abatement. It is just going to take a lot of manpower and a lot of money.

PR: They say that possibly tens of millions of homes in the U.S. have vermiculite insulation. What can homeowners do to determine whether their house is potentially contaminated with asbestos?

RM: The homes most likely to contain asbestos would be the ones built before or during the 1980s, so if someone is living in a brand-new home, odds are they have nothing to worry about. And like I said before, asbestos is only dangerous once it has been damaged. If it is left undisturbed behind walls, there is less risk.

But Zolonite insulation is one of the most toxic and hazardous asbestos products ever made and should not be disturbed by homeowners. The best thing to do is to hire a licensed professional asbestos abatement contractor because they know the most common places to look for asbestos. If they determine there is asbestos in the home, they will recommend the safest and best method of remediation, which could include removal or encapsulation.

PR: The Supreme Court overturned a lower-court ruling that Traveler’s Insurance would pay $500 million in damages for asbestos-related health problems with the stipulation that it would be immune from future lawsuits. Given the nature of the health risks associated with asbestos exposure, doesn’t this kind of plea deal ignore the long-term potential health risks of asbestos exposure?

RM: Oh, most definitely. First of all $500 million is merely a fraction of the cost mesothelioma and asbestosis patients incur with health care. Secondly, no one usually knows whether or not they have developed an asbestos-related illness until at least 20 years after they have been exposed.

PR: Thank you, Richard Moyle, national awareness coordinator for the Mesothelioma Cancer Center at Asbestos.com.

So there you have it — a man-made environmental disaster the EPA has been dealing with since 1999 and a Supreme Court–made disaster that could deny any legal remedy to an untold number of people should they contract an asbestos-related disease in the future.

It’s merely a coincidence that these stories both broke this week. But it’s no accident that two of the largest asbestos-product manufacturers in the U.S., W.R. Grace and Johns Manville, can in one case leave a small town contaminated with poison, and in the second case escape taking financial responsibility for the harm its products will likely do.

In the end, they are just two more stories about American corporations’ greed and irresponsibility, and — only tangentially, of course — the people they harm.