"...The EPA experts thought it unbelievable that an environmental accident could destroy so many in one tiny town and they didn't know about it. For the most part, the townsfolk themselves had no idea of the scope of the disease that had been killing them for years... Public health and occupational medicine researchers determined that the Libby asbestos may be more carcinogenic than any other type and that it brought on illness more rapidly. While most asbestos has a latency period -- the time from the inhalation of fibers to the onset of disease -- of 20 to 40 years,...