Throughout the community of Libby, Montana, hundreds of people are struggling with asbestos-related illnesses likely caused by the mining efforts of W.R. Grace & Co. One of these people is Daniel “Red” Busby, whose lung capacity has diminished by 1/3, forcing him to be hooked up to an oxygen supply while he sleeps. Red remembers cutting wood near the asbestos-tainted mine and watching asbestos fly into the air, and how the railroad tracks he maintained for a living were coated in asbestos dust that had leaked from boxcars.

“I was digging in it all the time,” he recalled. “To this day, the tracks are contaminated.”

His wife forced him to get tested for asbestos-related lung diseases. “Being a guy, I was putting it off,” he said. “I knew my breathing was getting bad. She coerced me in 2001 to go in for the government study and they found out the problem with my lungs.”

Like many people in Libby, Busby is frustrated by the physical toll that his illness has taken. “I used to be very active; now I have to hire kids to take care of things. You’re limited as to what you can do. I have to be positive because I know I’m not the only one to go through this.”

Exposure to asbestos can cause many kinds of illnesses, ranging from asbestosis to pleural plaques to lung cancer to mesothelioma, a rare but aggressive cancer. Mesothelioma can kill within months of being diagnosed, and there is no cure.

George Masters is also suffering from an asbestos-related lung problem. “My lungs are completely circled with it,” he said. “My breathing is down but I’ve stayed stable the last two years. The athletic club has helped. Some days are good; some days I’m begging for some wind.”