Background and Context

Little prior research had focused on SMTDs: slow-onset disasters of lengthy inde­terminate duration that invoke human cul­pability (Cline et al., 2010). Unlike natural disasters, where causes are outside of human control and effects are clearly and commonly understood, SMTDs are characterized by uncertainty about nearly every aspect of the disaster, including whether a disaster is actu­ally occurring.

Libby, a town in rural northwest Montana, has a population of about 10,000 within a 4-mile (1 mile = 1.61 kilometers) radius (U.S. Census Bureau, 2000). Vermiculite had been mined in the area since the early 20th century. From 1963 until its closing 1990, the mine was operated by W. R. Grace Company. The vermiculite was contaminated with a highly toxic amphibole asbestos. The entire town, not just company employees, was exposed to the amphibole asbestos. Exposure occurred from employees bringing home dusty clothes, by virtue of an expansion plant just across the river (during peak production, the expan­sion process put more than 5,000 pounds of amphibole asbestos into the air each day), from residents putting vermiculite given to them by an apparently paternalistic company into their attics, yards, driveways, the running tracks at the middle school and high school, and children’s “sand” boxes. Due to the latency period for diagnosing asbestos-related disease (ARD; from 10 to 40 years or longer; Whitehouse, 2004), this disaster continues to unfold and its magnitude continues to grow. In Libby, more than 400 people have died from and more than 2,000 have been diag­nosed with ARD.

In 1999, Andrew Schneider, a reporter for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, was making his way home from a cross-country trip dur­ing which he was investigating various mine sites (Schneider & McCumber, 2004). Along the way, someone suggested that he should stop in Libby.

Twenty-year old records uncovered by the EPA, in 2000, document a pattern of agencies turning their heads the other way (i.e., MSHA, EPA, NIOSH, and OSHA). Meanwhile, law­suits against the company grew. But many people in the community “did not know” about the problem prior to the 1999 news coverage. Within days of the initial news coverage, the EPA arrived to find a commu­nity reeling from uncertainty and enveloped in a climate of distrust. Cline et al.’s (2008) subsequent research showed that people felt uncertain about who to believe; every source’s credibility was challenged, especially the advo­cates. Distrust also had grown around the health care system—some questioning the company’s influence on the hospital and area doctors, others questioning the credibility of the doctors at the Center for Asbestos Related Disease (CARD). Advocates were demonized as publicity seekers who sought an “easy buck” through lawsuits. A significant por­tion of the community found both politicians and the business community—and responding agencies and the clinic dedicated to the treat­ment of ARD (i.e., CARD)—suspect. Even researchers’ veracity was questioned.

All of this turmoil evolved in a small rural town where people “love their community”; bumper stickers reading “I V Libby” are com­mon. In this context, Cline and associates, as outsiders, began to plan community-based research on the psychosocial consequences of an SMTD, such as social support, anxiety, and depression.