Mine Worker Who Focused Attention on Libby Asbestos Problem has Meso

January 15, 2006 - Les Skramstad, a Libby, Montana resident and former mine worker who brought the plight of the city to the attention of the world, has been diagnosed with mesothelioma. 

Skramstad, who worked for W.R. Grace-owned Zonolite from 1959 until 1962, has long been an advocate for those who have become sick or died from exposure to asbestos from the contaminated vermiculite mined in Libby, Montana.

According to an article in the Missoulian, Les – whose wife and two oldest children suffer from asbestosis – was one of the first to bring the plight of hundreds of Libby-ans to the attention of local and state officials.  Most didn’t listen to him, especially in the beginning, before the EPA came to town and confirmed that the entire town was coated with dangerous asbestos particles of the tremolite type, much more hazardous than the more common chrysotile variety. 

Skramstad described to the Missoulian his days at the mine, where he began working at age 23.  “There was an incredible amount of dust, a very unique dust,” Skramstad said. “It stuck to everything. It would stand right up on the guy wires; it would cling to whatever it touched. I don't have an explanation, but my job was to sweep it up, on all seven floors of the mill site.”

After he swept the floor, Skramstad explained, he loaded the dust into wheelbarrows and shoveled it onto a 200-foot-long conveyor belt, which carried the dust away, and deposited it at the base of a mountain near the mine.

“I quit on account of the dust, not that I knew it was harmful to me,” he said. “But my wife, Norita, she couldn't keep up with the cleanup.”

The EPA confirms that – indeed – the Zonolite plant dumped approximately 5,000 pounds of tremolite asbestos on the town each day that the mill was in operation. 

Les Skramstad was diagnosed with asbestosis in 1996 and similar diagnoses soon followed for family members.  That’s when he “decided to sound the bell,” as he says. 

Most recently, he’s attracted the attention of Senator Max Baucus, who has become the champion of Libby’s mesothelioma victims.  Baucus, according to the paper, recently volunteered to bankroll a trip to New York where Les could undergo a series of experimental surgeries to help alleviate the terrible effects of the disease.  Les refused. 

“Les just impressed me so much, and became so inspirational to me that I've focused more on Les and Libby by far than any other person or geographic area because of this gross injustice,” Baucus said during a telephone interview. “I'm convinced that W.R. Grace knew that it was infecting its employees with asbestos and didn't tell them.”

“He would describe to me how he'd get off the bus, covered in dust, and go home to his family,” Baucus said. “He'd hug his wife and his kids would jump in his lap. It just really grabbed me and made me angry that these folks have to go through with this, and it's just wrong, morally wrong. I vowed to Les that I was going to do everything I could do. It's one of those moments in your life that is really real. He's a real inspiration.”