Libby, Montana

For decades, a vermiculite mine and processing plants exposed miners and plant workers, as well as community members and families, to amphibole asbestos. In 2002, EPA declared Libby a Superfund site. As part of the federal government’s public health response, ATSDR’s and EPA’s Community Involvement Coordinators intervened by first discussing the possibility of addressing psychosocial stressors with the EPA’s Libby Community Advisory Group. ATSDR’s and EPA’s Community Involvement Coordinators next conducted a community needs assessment that included psychosocial issues. They then took several steps to legitimize the stress experience, including informal outreach efforts through local radio messages. A health fair was organized to address concerns about asbestos-related diseases, and medical support groups were created to offer informational and social support to community members with asbestos-related diagnoses. The CST supported the efforts of local social workers and University of Montana researchers, who were able to continue to provide psychosocial and other forms of support to the community after CST concluded its formal operations. In addition, SAMHSA gave these local professionals a grant to develop a training manual for addressing the psychosocial effects of CEC pdf icon[PDF – 316 KB]external icon.  These efforts also resulted in an extended program of community-based participatory research that yielded a considerable amount of valuable information.