Author: Demetra Dimolopoulos  

ISBN: 1-897161-28-X

The following review was contributed by: Penny Watkins:  CLICK HERE  to read more of Penny's Reviews.

Exposed tells the story of asbestos contamination by the Zonolite Mine in Libby, Montana.  In the early 20^th century, vermiculite was discovered in the mountains near Libby.  It was eventually mined and sold all over the world as insulation and a soil additive.  It wasn’t known until later that the asbestosis in Libby’s vermiculite was toxic, causing fatal lung disease.  The company knew before the community did, though.  Documents show that they knew of the risks of vermiculite, but didn’t make that knowledge public for a very long time.

Dimolopoulos documents the history of the mine and the community’s dependence on vermiculite mining.  She shows how asbestos kills, and how it wasn’t just Libby’s miners who were at risk.  She tells the story of a family who all suffered asbestosis from the mine dust one member carried home.  She tells of asbestos in homes and playgrounds, at the middle school and elementary schools where children played in it.  And she tells how W.R.Grace, the company who owned the mine, covered up the extent of the danger from asbestos.

Dimolopoulos’s writing isn’t linear.  She wanders, and drops a bit of information here, and a bit there.  A chapter or two later, she’ll come back to the first topic and add a bit more information.  Her expose of W.R. Grace’s cover-up isn’t well-documented or convincing.  She does, however, show what the people of Libby experienced.  We understand how hard it is to breathe when your lungs are damaged from asbestos.  We feel their anger at the company that both fed them and killed them.

The Zonolite Mine debacle was the worst environmental and occupational disaster of the 20^th century.  Not only were many people in Libby, Montana directly affected, but Libby Zonolite has been used to insulate homes all over the world.  The full effect of asbestos exposure from the Zonolite mine might never be known.  Exposed is one person’s attempt to make this information available.