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Article: Asbestos bill unresolved as thousands endure painful, fatal disease.
- Article from:
- St. Louis Post-Dispatch (St. Louis, MO)
- Article date:
- October 20, 2004
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 St. Louis Post-Dispatch. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Andrew Schneider
SANDPOINT, Idaho _ Mick Mills endures the agony of full-blown asbestosis.
The 72-year-old former safety manager for a lumber company, part-time helicopter medic and passionate photographer of Glacier National Park is shackled to an oxygen tube, which helps him breathe. He needs the oxygen to live. Scarring caused by asbestos fibers has made his supple lung tissue rough and leathery, like the covering of a football.
He shuttles between home and hospital, often having four, five or six quarts of suffocating fluid drained from his abdomen each visit.
Congress has spent four years struggling through often rancorous ...