Social Security ruling helps asbestos victims
Baucus pushes disability coverage for remolite exposure
The Social Security Administration has issued a ruling, effective today, that will make victims of Libby asbestos poisoning eligible to apply for disability benefits.
In a telephone news conference called by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., on Wednesday, Social Security Deputy Commissioner Martin Gerry said the federal ruling doesn't change any laws or regulations. It explains how asbestos poisoning is manifested from exposure to tremolite asbestos that was a by-product of the former W.R. Grace vermiculite mine at Libby.
Baucus rallied to help Libby asbestos victims after he learned that only people suffering from exposure to chrysotile asbestos - a more common and less deadly form of asbestos poisoning - could qualify for disability benefits. He first heard about the incongruity during his March visit to Libby with Micheal Leavitt, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
To qualify for disability benefits, claimants must be able to document they have an impairment that appears in Social Security's "listings." If they can do that, they automatically qualify for benefits.
The listings were formulated for chrysotile, however, not tremolite asbestos. Because the symptoms and effects of tremolite exposure are different, Libby residents didn't appear to have the disease in the agency's "listings."
Gerry said the new ruling explains how tremolite asbestos is similar and dissimilar to chrysotile, and he expects it to be a "blueprint to reach the right decision" in issuing disability benefits.
Dr. Brad Black, medical director of Libby's Center for Asbestos Related Disease clinic, was also instrumental in getting the eligibility problem solved.
"It's a step in the right direction," Black said during the telephone conference. "I'm very surprised a change like this can be done so quickly."
Black said it's difficult to estimate how many victims were affected by the glitch, or how many more will contract asbestos disease in the next couple of decades.
The clinic has a patient load of about 1,500 current and former residents with asbestos disease. Baucus said from 300 to 500 new cases are diagnosed each year, and that more than 200 Libby residents have died from asbestos-related disease.
The Social Security ruling is part of an ongoing effort to help Libby residents suffering the effects of asbestos disease, Baucus stressed.
Asbestos victims who previously were denied coverage, either through the disability benefits program or Supplemental Security Income should reapply, Gerry said, by contacting a Social Security field office.
Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com