Comments by "Bob Roberts" (@YourHineyness) on "Toxic Air: The Libby Montana Asbestos Disaster | Short Documentary | Plainly Difficult" video.

  1. Oh please. The Democrats and Republicans both feed at the same trough.
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  2. Kootenai is pronounced "KOOT-nee". Yes, I am a Libbyan :). The insidious thing is that many wives of the miners died from just washing the husband's clothes. A friend of mine just buried his wife this week from asbestosis and she never went anywhere near the mine. He has it too but he somehow remains in pretty good health at over 80 years old. People who grew up here talk of how they as kids used to play on and slide down the giant Zonolite piles awaiting loading on trains. Those people all, to a greater or lesser extent, have breathing problems. It can take decades to manifest. Libby will never be asbestos-free. It's everywhere. Imagine a dust storm blowing through your house. Where would there be dust? Everywhere. I read some time ago that Zonolite insulation was in 60% of US homes. You're welcome.
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  3. No. KOOT-nee. Are you Canadian? I think they say it differently there.
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  4. That's just it. Now people removing asbestos have to suit up like astronauts to work with it but in a couple of decades we might hear "well, the fibers were smaller than we first thought and those respirators didn't actually filter out all of it, soooo..."
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  5. I once heard a stock-broker call such conglomerates "airline and screen door companies". I worked for Gates Rubber Company back in the 1970s. Gates manufactured rubber products, owned a large egg farm, and also the Learjet airplane company. Diversify and conquer!
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  6.  @aluvrianne  I've resisted going to the CARD clinic because I really don't want to know. Nothing can be done about it so why worry? Enjoy each day.
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  7. They're slowly dying. It can take decades. Every week there's one or two obituaries for them in the local paper. They don't usually mention asbestos in the obit. It's sort of a given around here.
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  8.  @katherinekhan6892  It's up Rainy Creek Road off Hwy 37 but there's a guard shack there denying entrance from 37. About 4 1/2 miles towards Eureka from the Kootenai River bridge in Libby on 37.
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  9. Is Communism better? Greed knows no political ideology.
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  10. No, they are only dug out, exposed, and publicized here. This happens all over the world. It's just hushed-up via bribes or theats. Do some research into mainland China. They are burning radioactive coal in a power plant in one area. Radioactive dust raining down over thousands of square miles.
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  11. I live next to the tracks and my garden is on railroad property. Uh-oh.
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  12. I saw a picture online of a guy holding up a 4 foot long fluorescent bulb tube under those big power lines and it glowed on its own there was so much electricity leaking into the air. Another obvious problem that the governments keeps sweeping under the carpet. Being electrified 24/7 has to have an effect on humans.
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  13.  @LaserRifle  My friend's wife was 86 when she died last week but she suffered its effects for her last 20 years. Her obituary said she grew up here, born in 1937. It seems most of the victims are in their 70s and 80s.
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  14. Meh, at least it keeps the tourists away.
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  15.  @ml.2770  I dated a woman across town in Libby and when she vacuumed her carpet her vacuum cleaner's plastic body sparkled with vermiculite dust afterwards. Kind of looked like gold dust. Her attic was full of it and it sprinkled down from above.
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  16.  @bru9  Communism is worse. The Soviet Union and modern-day China are both environmental disasters border to border.
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  17. Life was better in my day...just...shorter.
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  18. Libby used to have several big employers near town: the Troy gold mine, the Libby vermiculite mine, the plywood mill, and logging. All have been shut down for varying reasons. There is NO work here at all so working-age people flocked to ND to actually make some money. The bulk of Libby's current residents are old and live on Social Security. As they die those checks will stop coming and Libby will slowly just close down. It's so poor here that the nearest Walmart is 90 miles away.
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  19. Just hold your breath when you eat it.
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  20. They soil tested all over Libby town. The EPA dug up my yard and replaced the dirt about 8 years ago. Buts it's even in the wood of the living trees. There was a forest fire several years ago surrounding the mine site and firefighters had to wear special gear to fight it because the fire released particles of asbestos from the live trees as they burned. Libby will never be asbestos-free.
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  21. A lot of bagged potting soils have vermiculite in them. It's the sparkly stuff.
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  22. Montana's state motto is “Oro y Plata” which translated from Spanish means “gold and silver.” "The Treasure State" is another one often used. So, lots of mines.
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  23.  @absurdengineering  It's a shame. Vermiculite is really useful stuff in a lot of applications.
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  24. Fluoride in drinking water comes to mind.
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  25. 20 years from now: "Oops, gosh, we sure thought that it didn't cause lung disease..."
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  26. "They" don't add asbestos to it. It's naturally occurring.
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  27. I guess when a guy has a family to support a paycheck today trumps the resulting lingering death in 20-30 years. Most family guys take their responsibilities pretty heavily.
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  28. Pretty much all land is stolen from somebody.
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  29.  @thelegion_within  Life finds a way.
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  30.  @aluvrianne  One problem is that the speed limit is 70 mph and it's a twisty, turny, narrow highway with deer, elk, moose, bears, wolves, and mountain lions darting out in front of you. I think deer must kill more humans than humans kill deer. Well, not deer but the tree you hit at 70 swerving to miss the deer.
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  31.  @aluvrianne  That's interesting. I live 30 feet from those same railroad tracks...right next to the ball field in the old picture. Small world.
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