(PRWEB) May 04, 2016 -- AN AIR THAT STILL KILLS
A 2016 update on America’s deadliest environmental disaster
BY ANDREW SCHNEIDER AND DAVID MCCUMBER
The newly released "An Air That Still Kills" is a haunting, meticulously reported account that will introduce you to the courageous miner’s daughter and the cowboy crooner who took on Grace – one of the nation’s most powerful chemical companies – and forced the government to acknowledge it had concealed the enormous danger their town faced.
After a $500 million cleanup led by dedicated emergency responders who had to fight their own government for time and money, the Montana town south of the Canadian border has been declared “safe enough to live in’’ by the EPA.
But the front-line federal health assessment teams, toxicologists and physicians who fought EPA headquarters, Congress and the White House to complete the job now find themselves again risking their careers. As with the lead-tainted water in Flint, Mich., EPA leaders refuse to sound the alarm about the deadly dangers that hide in as many as 50 million structures insulated with vermiculite from Libby.
Schneider has added 37,000 words with distressing new findings, including:
- Libby asbestos is so highly toxic that it can be lethal at exposure levels thousands of times lower than previously known.
- It is suspected of causing autoimmune diseases, as well as cancer and asbestosis.
- No government regulators are tallying the deaths from Libby asbestos.
- Even if they wanted to quantify the death rate, many physicians lack the equipment and expertise to accurately spot or diagnose the damage caused by asbestos.
The interactive iBook edition of "An Air That Still Kills" includes video, audio and dozens of photos documenting the mine’s impact on Libby and its people, along with source documents behind the reporting. A Kindle edition and a 590-page printed edition are also available. All editions take readers day-by-day through the high-stakes, 10-week criminal trial that pitted the United States v. W.R. Grace.
Of the first 26 chapters, which appeared in the original book "An Air That Kills," The Washington Post wrote in 2004: “It is the stuff of opera, a tragic tale of greed, betrayal and corruption finally revealed – if not entirely righted – by courage and perseverance. … It is easy enough to be scandalized by this story and still assume that it is someone else’s problem. But as Schneider and McCumber remind readers, attics across America are still filled with this insulation.”
The greed, power and politics that claimed so many lives will make you furious. The stories of tireless perseverance against all odds will astonish you. And the ongoing risk of a horrifying death faced by millions should make you mad as hell.
About the Authors
Andrew Schneider lives in Seattle and does in-depth investigative reporting on public health. He has worked for news organizations including The Associated Press, Scripps Howard News Service, The Pittsburgh Press, St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. He is the winner of two Pulitzers and numerous other awards.
David McCumber is editor of the Montana Standard in Butte, Montana. Formerly managing editor of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Washington bureau chief for Hearst Newspapers, he has worked for several other newspapers, including the San Francisco Examiner and the Santa Barbara News-Press.
$14.99 (iBook) · $9.99 (Kindle) · $29.99 (print)
Cold Truth Publishing · ISBN: 978-0-9851-9-0 · Published in April 2016
For further information or to schedule an interview, please contact BookedUpWA(at)gmail(dot)com
Kris Higginson, BookedUp, +1 (202) 422-2313, [email protected]
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