Victims of Montana asbestos pollution that killed hundreds take Warren Buffett's railroad to court
Respiratory therapist Vernon Johnson, left, conducts a pulmonary test on Christine Ekstedt at the Center for Asbestos Related Disease, Thursday, April 4, 2024, in Libby, Mont. The clinic has diagnosed thousands of people with asbestos-related disease following contamination from a nearby mine for vermiculite, a product that was shipped across the U.S. by rail for use as insulation and other purposes. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown)
LIBBY, Mont. (AP) — Paul Resch remembers playing baseball as a kid on a field constructed from asbestos-tainted vermiculite, mere yards from railroad tracks where trains kicked up clouds of dust as they hauled the contaminated material from a mountaintop mine through the northwestern Montana town of Libby. He liked to sneak into vermiculite-filled storage bins at an adjacent rail yard, to trap pigeons that he would feed, during long days spent by the tracks along the Kootenai River.
Today, Resch, 61, is battling an asbestos-related disease that has severely scarred his left lung. He's easily winded, quickly tires and knows there is no cure for an illness that could suffocate him over time.
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