The story of Spokane's Ralph Busch, who lost his home after Zonolite attic insulation contaminated it with tiny asbestos particles, took center stage at the U.S. Senate on Thursday.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., used the tale of a remodeler's nightmare to push legislation to ban asbestos in America.

‘‘I rise today to share a story with my colleagues," Murray began. ‘‘It's a true story about a family who happened to live in a neighborhood in Spokane, Washington. They could have easily been in Memphis or Minneapolis or Midland as well," she said.

Busch and his architect wife, Donna Duncan, were featured in a Jan. 21 Spokesman-Review story on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's decision to abort a planned national warning on the potential hazards of Zonolite attic insulation after pressure from the White House.

The newspaper also cited a leaked EPA memo that said Zonolite's manufacturer, W.R. Grace & Co., told the EPA last year to ‘‘do nothing" to warn consumers about Zonolite.

Busch and Duncan were in the middle of a remodeling project three years ago when they read a newspaper story about Zonolite, an

attic insulation product manufactured from ore mined in Libby, Mont.

It contains vermiculite asbestos,

whose tiny particles can cause asbestosis or mesothelioma, a fatal cancer of the lung lining.

By the time Busch and Duncan learned of the problem, Zonolite had sifted through their $93,000 Victorian house on Spokane's South Hill.

Asbestos experts told them it would cost as much as $60,000 to get all of it -- which would only have returned them to the point where they could continue remodeling.

Concerned for their health and unable to sell the house, they moved out and reluctantly stopped making their mortgage payments. Last May, the mortgage company foreclosed.

‘‘I hate to think anyone else would have to face the same nightmare we have. It wouldn't have happened to me if there had been some information out there about this stuff," Busch said.

In her speech, Murray said there are 15 million to 35 million homes, schools and businesses that contain asbestos-tainted insulation.

She asked why the EPA plans to remove Zonolite insulation from homes in Libby but is silent on homes in the rest of the country.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health was also preparing to alert workers, including electricians, plumbers and maintenance workers, about how to protect themselves from Zonolite exposure.

The federal warnings were prepared last April but have not been released, Murray said.

‘‘I suspect that like Mr. Ralph Busch, thousands of people across

the U.S. are not taking these important precautions because they are simply unaware of the danger," Murray said.

Murray said she'd asked for an explanation of EPA's about-face from agency director Christie Todd Whitman. She called Whitman's response ‘‘totally inadequate."

In a Jan. 16 reply, Whitman said EPA's decision to proceed with Zonolite cleanup in Libby, where hundreds of people are sick from asbestos exposure, is ‘‘unrelated to the larger issue" of whether the attic insulation poses a nationwide risk.

The EPA continues to believe the insulation ‘‘poses minimal risk if left undisturbed," Whitman said in her letter.

EPA is planning more studies of attic insulation to determine whether that conclusion is valid, Whitman said.

Murray's Ban Asbestos in America Act, introduced last June when Democrats controlled the Senate, would require public health agencies to warn people about Zonolite's risks.

Now that Senate control has passed to the Republicans, Murray is working on building bipartisan support for the legislation before reintroducing it.

‘‘We are doing the ground work now. Even many U.S. senators don't realize this stuff hasn't been banned," said Todd Webster, Murray's spokesman.

Karen Dorn Steele can be reached at 459 5462 or by e-mail at karend@spokesman.com.