W.R. GRACE TRIAL
Hearing opens with EPA testimony on asbestos contamination

January 22, 2009 -- At a preliminary hearing for next month’s W.R. Grace trial, described by an EPA official as “one of the most significant criminal indictments for environmental crime in our history,” an expert witness in the government's case testified that researchers relied on well-founded science when determining the scope of asbestos contamination perpetrated by Grace.

W.R. Grace Co. and six former executives are charged with violating the federal Clean Air Act and obstructing an EPA investigation into asbestos contamination in the mining town of Libby, Montana, where exposure to asbestos has killed an estimated 300 to 400 residents and former Grace employees, while leaving hundreds more suffering from fatal illnesses, including mesothelioma.

Yesterday’s evidentiary hearing in Missoula, Montana, opened with testimony from Christopher Weis, an EPA toxicologist, who defended the merit of several studies being challenged by attorneys for Grace. In his testimony, Weis described living conditions in the town of Libby, where for decades W.R. Grace mined and processed asbestos-tainted vermiculite for many markets, including home insulation.

W.R. Grace asbestos hearing

Weis said Libby residents and workers’ families injured by asbestos exposure “had played on rope swings and dropped into piles of vermiculite, played on the high school track that was contaminated with ore and mine tailings. Others had worked at the mine and were exposed. Those who delivered materials to the mine, like those who filled the vending machines, were exposed.”

Even residents who reported no known exposure to the fiber showed signs of asbestos-related lung disease “simply from living in Libby,” Weis said.

“There were visible flakes of vermiculite everywhere. You never quite knew where it was going to turn up,” he said. “It wasn't surprising after we were there for a few months to find this material all over town - in people's gardens, in their driveways, that sort of thing.”

This week's hearing, almost entirely about the merits of scientific studies, could be the final hurdle before jury selection on Feb. 19.

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Personal injury law firm Weitz & Luxenberg has protected the legal rights of asbestos workers for 25 years – longer than most law firms in the nation. And in that time our mesothelioma lawyers have won several billion dollars in verdicts and settlements for clients.

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