Doctors linked asbestos to deadly disease 100 years ago. It is banned in 12 countries. But it still remains legal to mine, import and sell asbestos in the United States. Despite overwhelming evidence of asbestos' deadliness, a powerful industry and political pressures have stifled government action.

Three major brands of crayons -- scribbled with and nibbled on by millions of children worldwide -- contain asbestos, tests conducted for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer show.

Tiny Libby, Mont., depended for years on the jobs at a vermiculite mine. The mine is closed now, but the town is paying a tragic price for those jobs. Hundreds of townspeople have either died or been diagnosed with fatal illness from asbestos the mine released into the air.

Generations of miners were fiber's victims

In the talc-mining towns of upstate New York, workers have become ill and died from exposure to the same fibers found by the government last week in crayons. Mine owner R.T. Vanderbilt Co. has fought bitterly to avoid regulation and, despite health studies and health authorities' statements to the contrary, continues to insist the fibers are not asbestos.
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