National Association of Social Workers

Justice in the face of environmental disasters

Social workers provide recovery efforts, services

By Paul R. Pace, News staff

Illustration by John Yanson

Libby, Mont., is a rural working-class town situated in the northwest corner of the state. For several decades, workers and residents were unaware they were being exposed to highly toxic asbestos associated with nearby vermiculite mining and milling operations.

The exposure was so intense that in 2002, Libby was declared a Superfund site, the federal government’s program that works to clean up the nation’s uncontrolled hazardous waste sites.

Since 1999, the Environmental Protection Agency has cleaned up the major asbestos source areas around the community. Many private properties in the Libby area are still in the midst of the community-wide cleanup process.

While exposure continues to challenge residents with a complex array of health problems, Libby also is a place where social work and environmental justice are making a difference. For social worker Tanis Hernandez, helping people on the front line of recovery is one way to right the wrongs done to generations of people living with the consequences of asbestos exposure.

Hernandez is the administrative director for the Center for Asbestos Related Disease, or CARD, based in Libby. It is a nonprofit clinic governed by a volunteer community board. Its staff provides health care, outreach and research to benefit all people impacted by the area’s asbestos exposure

“Doing what is right for individuals, families and the community is the most rewarding thing about this job,” Hernandez said. “When I go home at night I know I gave it everything I had to make things right. The other most valuable element of CARD is the sense of team and knowing that when the going gets tough or the challenges feel overwhelming, you have your friends and teammates to pick you up to continue the forward momentum.”

Hernandez joined CARD in 2002 as an outreach coordinator and provided direct services to individuals and families dealing with the multifaceted psychological and social needs of coping with the exposure.

“I always wanted to be a social worker in a health care setting, and thus focused my social work education on health and mental health issues,” Hernandez said.

She said more than 400 people have died of asbestos-related diseases in the area, and more than 2,000 people have been diagnosed with an asbestos-related illness.

“Thousands more exposed are currently participating in screening and many will become ill in the future,” she said.

For Hernandez, environmental justice is what CARD and the Libby community have been working on for nearly 13 years. More specifically, she said environmental justice means providing a healthy environment for all people to live, work and play without fear of negative environmental factors that may interrupt their daily lives.

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From January 2013 NASW News. © 2012 National Association of Social Workers. All Rights Reserved. NASW News articles may be copied for personal use, but proper notice of copyright and credit to the NASW News must appear on all copies made. This permission does not apply to reproduction for advertising, promotion, resale, or other commercial purposes.