Libby Montana Documentary Summary

1. Family / p. 442: Two or more people who consider themselves related by blood, marriage, or adoption.
The first few images that were first introduced by the documentary showed what appeared to be an incredibly peaceful and cozy place to live with a lot of vegetation and surrounded by mountains, the small city of Libby in the state of Montana seems to be the perfect place to start or expand a family in a community-oriented city. The word “family” is constantly emphasized throughout the documentary, and it demonstrates that they dedicate a lot of time for their family and relatives. Mostly, nuclear families, which is a family consisting of a husband, wife and children, seems to be one of the core practices in Libby and the children do not

Besides the argument, Libby Montana inhabitants had their health highly affected in three, if not all four, of the components that measures health, by means that were beyond their control. An international company started a mining operation in the small city. At first, the inhabitants were happy with all the new jobs a major company moving to town would bring. Throughout the documentary a man said, “The good jobs were there.” Unfortunately, they did not know that in the long-term that mining was about to bring major consequences upon all Libby’s inhabitants. The mining operation generated an overwhelming amount of dust that was easily spread throughout the whole city. During the documentary, a man said, “You could not see it in the air, but you could see it in your coffee.” And his daughter said, “When he would get home I would get the car and drive to town and on the way the car would get all covered in dust. I would think, ‘It’s just dust, don’t worry about it.’” For those who worked inside the mining field, the consequences of working in a dusty environment started very soon with numerous employees being diagnosed with lung disorders leading to death. The exposure to asbestos started affecting not only the workers health, but also the city inhabitants, because asbestos is highly toxic even at very low exposure. Physically their lungs were affected, which leads to mental stress to the ill person and the whole family. The overwhelming amount of inhabitants being affected caused a major social problem within the city inhabitants, and a mistrust that was being built and conserved for generations. The health of Libby’s inhabitants was, and is, compromised and their enjoyment of life is reduced because of irresponsible decisions made by third party.