So this weekend, as part of my ravenous Netflix consumption, I watched Libby, Montana, a documentary which explores the effects of vermiculite mining in the namesake town. The vermiculite in question is augmented with a less desirable mineral: the amphibole known as tremolite. Tremolite grows in a long, fibrous habit, which has been given the name... asbestos. So the deal with Libby is that essentially everyone in town either worked in the vermiculite mine, or was married to someone who worked in the vermiculite mine. A bunch of them inhaled tremolite fibers, both workers and family members. A bunch of them developed lung diseases like asbestosis or mesothelioma. A lot of them died. The movie ends with a moving tribute to the dead. It's some bad stuff. W.R. Grace, the company operating the vermiculite mine, is demonstrably culpable for their employees' deaths.

Tremolite is one of the nastier varieties of asbestos, but not all minerals that happen to grow in that shape are carcinogenic. Some, like chrysotile, (the variety mined at the type locality) have not been found to be as dangerous (by authorities like the USGS). But because many varieties of asbestiform minerals do cause disease, many people (particularly in the litigious U.S.) have opted to ban all minerals of the asbestiform habit. This has resulted in umpteen gazillion public buildings being stripped of their asbestiform minerals, whether or not those particular minerals have been shown to be disease-causing. It's like banning all round candy just because you think that red M&Ms are carcinogenic (which isn't even true). So this brings us to my home institution of Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA). This week, if you were to come visit me in my office in the CF building, here's what you would see (photo).

We're doing asbestos abatement. Amazingly (from a legal standpoint), I'm still allowed to keep working in my office, ten feet away from a what appears to be a major asbestos removal project. The local source is the floor tiles, which look pretty much like linoleum, but are apparently held together with the strong "asbestos" fibers. Which asbestos mineral exactly? Don't know. Probably never will. Last year, they did the same thing in a separate building, the one where my classes are held.

As a P.S., I'll mention that halfway through the day yesterday, I noticed someone put duct tape over the words "Asbestos" and "Cancer and Lung Disease Hazard." No longer that particular danger, apparently...

Labels: minerals, movies, nova