Jeff Robertson is sick of being asked by reporters if he is angry.

At 56, with lungs scarred and his wife and children at risk just from growing up in Libby, of course he is angry. He’s furious, but there isn’t much he can do with that anger.

A Libby native, Robertson was exposed time and time again to the deadly dust that so insidiously infiltrated the town from W.R. Grace & Co.’s vermiculite mine.

“I played in it in the ballfield after baseball practice,” he said. “I insulated folks’ houses with it.”

Robertson doesn’t talk much, preferring hard work to conversation with strangers. But with his lung capacity at just 60 percent of normal, everything is more difficult.

“It has diminished my ability to be a hard worker,” he said. “I just can’t do that anymore.”

Robertson noticed things were going wrong long ago. His parents suffered from lung scarring and breathing problems, and he struggled to play with his friends while young.

“I first noticed it as a young teenager,” he said. “My friends and I would be riding our bikes and I would have trouble keeping up with them. I had trouble breathing.”

When he got his driver’s license, he made money hauling the mine tailings to people’s houses. The cast-off ore from the mine was a valuable gardening resource, and for a 16-year old, good money was there to be made for bringing what he thought was potting soil around town.

Despite noticing some shortness of breath as a teen, Robertson said it was only recently the effects of his disease really impacted his life.

“The last couple years I’ve really noticed it,” he said. “Walking, shoveling, raking all take a lot of effort to do now.”

Robertson has worked construction for most of his life, dealing with vermiculite insulation on a daily basis. Holding other jobs, such as a stint at the lumber mill, haven’t made things easier.

His one saving grace is that his kids and wife don’t have asbestos-related disease. But even he admits that statement is tagged with a “yet.”

And yeah, he’ll be angry about it.

Reporter Ryan Murray may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at rmurray@dailyinterlake.com.