As quoted February 28, 2001 by the Seattle Post regarding Libby, Montana…  Michael Beard, a former senior chemist for the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) for 26 years, and he was interested in hearing the public’s reaction to the thousands of tests done for the EPA that show that the asbestos killing the people of Libby was tremolite and actinolite.

But at the conference, geologists from other government agencies disagreed.  One said there were small amounts of sodium and manganese in the Libby fibers, making them technically richterite.  Another said they had found a bit of iron in their sample, so the fiber had to be winchite.      

“Who cares?”  Beard told his colleagues, “You’ve got at least 192 people who have died (as of 2001) and hundreds more made ill in Libby from what has been diagnosed as asbestos-related disease(s)…They don’t care whether it is actinolite, tremolite, or buffalo-girl-won’t-you-come-out-tonight, whatever it is, it caused disease.”       

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