The W. R. Grace & Co. criminal trial continues in Missoula, Montana, but this week two executives on trial for environmental crimes have been dismissed from the case. Robert Walsh was dismissed Monday, and William McCraig was dismissed from the case Thursday morning. Judge Donald Molloy is presiding over this case. Defense attorneys have been seeking to have the entire case dismissed for prosecutorial misconduct, but on April 29 Judge Molloy issued an order not to dismiss the case.

The trial began Feb. 19 in U.S. District Court. A federal grand jury charged W.R. Grace & Co. in February 2005, along with seven of the company’s executives and managers. In June 2008, a Supreme Court decision upheld the grand jury’s findings and the court date was set. The company and its executives are charged with knowingly exposing workers at the Libby, Montana mine, and residents of the town of Libby, to hazardous asbestos.

The asbestos is found in vermiculite, which was mined in Libby for many years. Hundreds of people in Libby have died as a result of asbestos-related diseases, including asbestosis, a severe scarring of the lungs, and mesothelioma, a deadly cancer that affects the lining of the lungs and, less commonly, the stomach and/or the heart.

W.R. Grace defense lawyers are currently presenting their case to the court. It is estimated that the case will go to the jury by the end of next week.

If you are interested in following this case, there is an excellent blog site, Grace Case, which is a joint project of the School of Law and the School of Journalism at the University of Montana. The site provides reports from the courtroom from either a news or legal analysis standpoint, depending on which students are filing the posts.

An interview published Sunday, April 5, by the Boston Globe featured an interview with popular country music singer Billy Ray Cyrus, and his daughter Miley Cyrus, who is probably more famous now than her father was in his heyday. Billy Ray is known to a generation of 1980s country music fans for his hit single “Achy Breaky Heart” but is probably better known among a younger generation of teens and ‘tweens simply as the father of their idol, Disney superstar Miley Cyrus, of the network’s “Hannah Montana” series.

Discussing the atmosphere of celebrity in which Miley grew up, as the daughter of a performer, the interview veers off to mention Billy Ray’s roots as the son of a steelworker father, Ron Cyrus, who went on to serve 21 years in the Kentucky House of Representatives. Almost offhandedly, the story mentions that Ron Cyrus passed away of mesothelioma, which he almost certainly contracted through his exposure to asbestos in the mills.

Perhaps the paper felt this tidbit was relevant to its Boston audience because the elder Mr. Cyrus visited Boston for treatment of his mesothelioma, and son Billy Ray wrote a colorful country tune, “I Want My Mullet Back,” in honor of a former Red Sox baseball player. In his day, Billy Ray was famous for his own long mullet haircut, a style cropped short on top and sides but long in the back (“business in the front, party in the back”).

The mention of mesothelioma seems random, but there’s more to the story.

Ron Cyrus passed away on February 28, 2006. He had served in the Kentucky House of Representatives for Kentucky’s 98th Legislative District, beginning in 1975, and was elected to 11 consecutive terms before retiring in 1996. He was 70 years old when he passed away, and old reports from that time list his cause of death simply as “lung cancer.”

In March 2006, at the end of its regular session, both houses of the Kentucky State Legislature observed a moment of silence in honor of Ron Cyrus’s passing.

But now, in its 2009 session, the Kentucky legislature is once again recognizing the issue of mesothelioma and asbestos awareness, and, along with it, Ron Cyrus.

First, on Feb. 6, Representative Ancel Smith and Rep. Sannie Overly introduced HR95, a resolution to recognize September 26 as National Mesothelioma Awareness Day, as designated by the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation (MARF) and supported by U.S. Congressional resolution.

HR95 was established in Kentucky to honor “those who have fallen victim to this disease in the Commonwealth” and names “former legislator Ron Cyrus; Todd Hall, a bright, young University of Kentucky graduate who had started a successful business; [and] Allen Conley, a naval architect and marine engineer exposed to asbestos in the Yorktown, Virginia Naval shipbuilding yards…”

The resolution was adopted in the House by voice vote on Feb. 9.

Then, on Feb. 23, HB519 was introduced in the Kentucky House of Representatives, sponsored by Representatives Ancel Smith, Keith Hall,  Tom Burch, Leslie Combs, Ted Edmonds, Jeff Greer and Brent Housman. The Act would designate Sept. 26 of each year as Mesothelioma Awareness Day in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and would be known as “The Ron Cyrus and Todd Hall Mesothelioma Awareness Act of 2009.”

The bill passed the house by a vote of 97-0 on March 10, with 3 not voting.

The bill was introduced in the Senate designated as SB58, sponsored by Johnny Ray Turner, where it passed unanimously by a vote of 36-0 on March 3.

Read SB58.

Read HB519.

Read House Resolution 95.

Law.com, an online publication of Incisive Media providing legal news and information, recently featured a story highlighting a unique program at the University of Montana, in which journalism students and law students are covering the W.R. Grace & Co. criminal trial currently underway in Missoula, Montana.

Students are blogging at an original site, dubbed The Grace Case Project, as well as posting updates on Twitter under the name UMGraceCase. Journalism students write as news reporters covering the story as the jury hears it, while law students, all in their second or third year, explain the “legal nuances and strategies of the trial,” Law.com reports. The blog features an icon of a quill pen when the post is from a journalism perspective, or the scales of justice when written by a law student.

The criminal trial against W.R. Grace & Co. began Feb. 19 at the Russell Smith federal courthouse. The company, along with former company officials, are charged with conspiracy, obstruction of justice and knowing endangerment of the Clean Air Act. The government says Grace knew its vermiculite mine in Libby, Montana, produced dangerous asbestos that put the health of its workers and the nearby townspeople at risk.

Hundreds have died in Libby as a result of exposure to asbestos, suffering a number of serious asbestos related diseases including asbestosis, a serious scarring of the lungs, and mesothelioma, a deadly cancer that affects the lining of the lungs and/or the abdomen.

A report posted yesterday by The Daily Mirror, a publication in the United Kingdom, features an interview with Barbara McQueen, widow of legendary actor Steve McQueen, who died of mesothelioma in 1981. The actor was exposed to asbestos while in the Marines, Barbara recalls, when assigned the duty of cleaning asbestos-lined pipes.

The Mirror is spearheading what it calls the Asbestos Timebomb Campaign, to raise awareness of the danger of asbestos exposure and to call on the British government to take action in preventing it. The news agency has a list of five demands as part of the campaign:

1. Establishment of a £10 million National Centre for Asbestos Related Disease to find better treatment, alleviate suffering and work on cures.
2. Reinstate compensation for victims of “pleural plaques” – scars on lungs caused by asbestos – after it was abandoned two years ago.
3. Secure fair and equal compensation for asbestos disease sufferers who can’t trace the insurers of the bosses who exposed them, through a new Employers’ Liability Insurance Bureau paid for by the insurance industry.
4. Establish a public register of all asbestos surveys carried out on public buildings.
5. Provide the government’s Health and Safety Executive with the resources to meet the department’s own targets for inspecting asbestos removal work.

In a statement published by The Mirror, Barbara said, “I commend the Mirror for its watchdog efforts in leading the charge regarding asbestos exposure. My husband’s death was a long and painful ordeal, and I can readily identify with those who have been exposed to asbestos as well as their loved ones.”

She said that at the time Steve McQueen was diagnosed with mesothelioma, it was widely reported in the media simply as lung cancer. Many people are still unaware that the actor actually died as a result of asbestos exposure, she said.

Ironically, Barbara now lives in Montana, an hour’s drive from Libby, the site of the largest known asbestos contamination in U.S. history. The poisoning of Libby is linked to the vermiculite mine that operated there for years under the W.R. Grace & Company.

The company and some of its top officials are in the midst of a criminal trial to determine if it knowingly exposed mine workers and nearby residents to deadly asbestos.

The criminal trial against W.R. Grace & Co. is continuing this week at the Russell Smith federal courthouse in Missoula, Montana. The company, along with former company officials, are charged with conspiracy, obstruction of justice and knwoing endangerment of the Clean Air Act. The government says Grace knew its vermiculite mine in Libby, Montana, produced dangerous asbestos that put the health of its workers and the nearby townspeople at risk.

Hundreds have died in Libby as a result of exposure to asbestos, suffering a number of serious asbestos related diseases including asbestosis, a serious scarring of the lungs, and mesothelioma, a deadly cancer that affects the lining of the lungs and/or the abdomen. In 1999 an investigation revealed widespread asbestos contamination in Libby, and the Environmental Protection Agency began an effort to clean up the town, which continues today.

The story is receiving coverage from a number of media sources. The New Yorker called this the “most significant environmental criminal trial in American history.”

Early on, Judge Donald Molloy sparked anger in Libby residents when he ruled that victim witnesses would not be allowed to sit in on the trial. Regular myMeso reader and contributor Mike Crill, a longtime resident of Libby who has lost several family members to asbestos disease and suffers from asbestosis himself, was quoted in the Montana Kaimin when he and other Libby residents staged protests outside the courthouse.

The Kaimin quotes Crill as saying, “So much for freedom of speech, huh? Especially when you’re the victims and you’re being told that you’re not the victims.”

There is a great blog site by writer Tristan Scott, who also is doing a comprehensive series on the trial for The Missoulian, that is detailing the goings on at the Grace criminal trial. The blog, Cops and Courts, which bills itself as a “criminal justice blog” even has transcripts from court proceedings.

The Missoulian also has a special site set up with lots of archival information about W.R. Grace and Libby, Montana, as well as facts about asbestos, vermiculite mining and more. The site includes videos and slideshows as well.

Photo courtesy of Cops and Courts blog.

The criminal trial against W.R. Grace & Company began Monday in Missoula, Montana, and is continuing this week. The company is charged with knowingly exposing workers at its Libby, Montana, vermiculite mine, and residents of the nearby town of Libby to asbestos. The asbestos is found in vermiculite. Exposure to asbestos causes diseases including asbestosis, a scarring of the lungs, and mesothelioma, a deadly cancer.

Hundreds of people in Libby have died as a result of asbestos exposure, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has established the town as a Superfund site, undertaking a number of cleanup efforts.

The trial is taking place in U.S. District Court in Missoula before a federal grand jury.

According to The Missoulian, which is offering daily coverage of the trial as well as a web site dedicated to the history of W.R. Grace and Libby, federal prosecutors called their first witnesses yesterday. The news source says U.S. District Judge Don Molloy has ruled that testimony about asbestos releases must be limited to incidents after 1990, when the relevant criminal provision of the Clean Air Act was established, but the same year the Libby operation shut down.

However, the Missoulian says, prosecutors are working to show that even after the mine’s closure, “normal human activity” in the town stirred up asbestos-laden vermiculite that now permeated the town.

On Tuesday there was some dispute about allowing Paul Peronard to testify as a government expert witness against Grace. Peronard was the EPA’s on-site coordinator in 1999, when the asbestos contamination situation in Libby broke into the national news. He coordinated the asbestos remediation in Libby.

However, the Missioulian says, defense objected to qualifying Peronard as an expert witness, saying he didn’t have much experience with asbestos prior to his work in Libby.

Today the judge said he will allow Peronard to testify, but is limiting his testimony and expert opinions to his role in coordinating the Libby cleanup, barring him as an “expert scientist in risk assessment, toxicology or mineralogy,” the Missoulian says.

Federal prosecutors had hoped to use Peronard as a key witness.

Grace and five former company officials are charged with federal conspiracy involving Clean Air Act violations and obstrcution of justice, related to whether or not they knew they were endangering their workers and the community of Libby by mining asbesos-contaning vermiculite, and whether they were violating federal law.

Jury selection is beginning today in Missoula, Montana, for the criminal case against W.R. Grace & Co. The company is charged with knowingly exposing workers at its Libby, Montana, based mine, and residents of the town of Libby, to hazardous asbestos. The asbestos is found in vermiculite, which was mined in Libby for many years. Hundreds of people in Libby have died as a result of asbestos-related diseases, including asbestosis and mesothelioma, and hundreds more are still suffering.

Local media Missoulian.com is covering the W.R. Grace trial extensively, and has created an EXCELLENT web site with tons of resources about the case, as well as about the town of Libby, asbestos and vermiculite, the victims, the company, cleanup efforts and more. There are videos available as well. Visit the web site here: http://missoulian.com/wrgrace

The trial is being held in U.S. District Court in Missoula. A federal grand jury charged W.R. Grace & Co. in February 2005, along with seven of the company’s executives and managers. In June 2008 a Supreme Court decision upheld the grand jury’s findings so a court date could be set.

I recently spoke with Mike Crill, and posted a poem on this site that he wrote in memory of his father-in-law, who worked in the Grace mines and died of asbestosis. Mike suffers from asbestosis as well, and he is an active and outspoken advocate on behalf of the town of Libby and its residents. He believes that despite an EPA cleanup, the town is still dangerous because of the lingering threat of asbestos exposure.

When I spoke to Mike in January, he was optimistic, hoping a new President and administration would bring a fresh look at Libby, and hopeful the criminal trial would bring justice to its people.

“I’m hoping 2009 will be the beginning of the end of all that’s been allowed to happen for so long, and I hope these people will be held accountable,” he said. “This is murder, to me, because they could have stopped it and they should have.”

Yesterday, Mike emailed me several times, upset by a ruling by U.S. District Judge Donald W. Molloy, who in an order last week said that there are “no crime victims identifiable” in the Grace case, essentially barring Libby residents who are sick from asbestos exposure and serving as victim witnesses to attend the trial.

According to a news story written by Tristan Scott and published by the Missoulian, “Molloy drew his legal conclusion from an oft-evoked federal rule of evidence that prohibits witnesses from observing trial proceedings until their own testimony is complete.” The judge’s decision is based on a witness-sequestration rule, but it is usually not applied to witnesses who are the victims of alleged crimes.

The ruling excludes 34 witnesses from Libby that prosecutors had intended to call from attending the trial in full. Judge Molloy’s order says witnesses in the Grace case are not protected under the Crime Victims Rights Act, which guarantees victims of an alleged crime to the right to participate in and observe the criminal justice process.

Basically, the judge is saying that these witnesses do not qualify as “crime victims,” and therefore are not immune from the witness-sequestration rule.

Mike was livid.

“Can you believe this??? I…am not a victim???” he emailed me from Missioula, where he is picketing at the courthouse. “I can’t participate in something that belongs to me and all my loved ones who suffered and died waiting for this, their day of justice?”

I recently spoke with Mike Crill, a resident of Libby, Montana for more than 40 years. Mike has been diagnosed with asbestosis as a result of years of asbestos exposure at the W.R. Grace & Co. mine in Libby. He has watched many members of his family suffer from asbestosis and mesothelioma as a result of years of exposure in the workplace and from widespread asbestos contamination throughout the town.

These days, Mike is an outspoken activist who lobbies for more thorough cleanup of Libby and the surrounding countryside, or a quarantine of the town to protect future generations from exposure. I’ll have more about his mission in the next few weeks, but I wanted to introduce you to him through some of his writings.

Following is a poem that Mike created in memory of his father-in-law, Donald M. Kaeding, who was diagnosed with asbestosis in both lungs in 1999, and passed away on January 30, 2002.

Today I’m Told
By Mike Crill

Today I’m told I have asbestosis in both my lungs
and that I am being sent home to die because there is no cure and asbestosis
is my guarantee to death…

Today I am scared to what has become of me.
I no longer can run nor walk very far.
Life’s getting harder every day…

Today I’m saddened by those who love me as they try to hide
the truth and their pain, knowing I shall soon die and that
they will witness my every moment, until I die…

Today I feel so lost because my life depends on a tube that
pumps oxygen into my lungs to keep me alive. Knowing beyond
the end of that hose lies the end of my life…

Today I am mad because I can’t feed myself and someone has to
bathe me, dress me and change my soiled pants. It’s times like
these I wish I were dead…

Today I am in the hospital. I’ve become too much for my loved ones
to endure and I am crying inside because I know when I leave here
I’ll be in Heaven…

Today is the worst, no feelings in my hands and feet, both are
turning blue and non-stop morphine is all that’s left to ease
my pain…

Today I tried my hardest for my last breath, for my last
touch of a hand in mine, as the last words I heard and the last
words I spoke, “I love you…”

Today … I’m in Heaven. No pain for ever more. It’s really
beautiful here. And I shall await for you all to join me in
eternal life and love…God bless and Amen

The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), which is part of the U.S.Department of Health and Human Services, released a summary report Oct. 29 that reviews exposure to asbestos-containing vermiculite from Libby, Montana, at 28 processing sites in the United States. Conducted in cooperation with state health department partners, the site evaluations examined potential past, current and future pathways of exposure to asbestos associated with the Libby mine.

According to the summary report, the ATSDR began evaluating the Libby-related sites at the request of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), following documented health-related effects of vermiculite in Libby itself. The summary says the EPA identified 245 sites within the U.S. that may have received shipments of asbestos-containing vermiculite from Libby. Of that number, the 28 sites chosen for this study by the ATSDR were either mandated for study by the EPA due to existing asbestos contamination, or were selected because the site processed more than 10,000 tons of vermiculite from the Libby mine.

The summary states that ATSDR was able to identify three groups who experienced “significant exposure to Libby amphiboles in the past while these facilities actively exfoliated vermiculite: former employees, household contacts of former employees, and some community members who had frequent, direct contact with vermiculite or waste rock from the exfoliation process.”

Health effects associated with breathing asbestos include asbestosis, a scarring of the lungs; mesothelioma, which affects the lining of the lungs; and lung cancer. It can take as long as 30 or more years for the affects of asbestos exposure to manifest with symptoms.

ATSDR and its state health partners created a health consultation, fact sheet and media announcement for each of the 28 sites studied. These are available at the ATSDR web site.

You can also read the ATSDR Summary Report Fact Sheet or the Full Summary Report.

The ATSDR, based in Atlanta, Ga., is a federal public health agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. According to its web site, ATSDR serves the public by using the best science, taking responsive public health actions, and providing trusted information to prevent harmful exposures to diseases related to toxic substances.

W.R. Grace & Co. announced in mid-September that it had filed a Plan of Reorganization for the company with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware. According to Grace Chairman, President and CEO Fred Festa, the filing was a step toward resolving the company’s asbestos-related liabilities and exiting its Chapter 11 bankruptcy status. A hearing on the company’s Disclosure Statement was set to begin this week.

As we have posted on this site many times before, W.R. Grace operated a vermiculite mine and processing plant in and near Libby, Montana, from 1963 to 1990. The vermiculite was contaminated with high levels of asbestos, which affected the health of mine workers and just about everyone who lived in the town. Gravel and other scrap rock from the mine was scattered throughout the town of Libby, used in construction of a running track at the school, lining flowerbeds, and underfoot on ballfields.

Hundreds of Libby residents have died of mesothelioma and other asbestos-related illnesses as a result of their widespread exposure to the asbestos materials, and even more are sick with asbestos disease. In March, Grace agreed to pay $250 million toward government cleanup efforts in the town of Libby. It is estimated that the Environmental Protection Agency has spent at least $168 million so far in removing asbestos-contaminated soils and other materials from the Libby area.

Reaching beyond Libby, which has been basically killed by asbestos, the vermiculite insulation that was manufactured by Grace is still a danger in thousands of homes, where it was used for years. Grace is currently accepting claims from homeowners who have the company’s Zonolite Attic Insulation (ZAI) in their homes, for reimbursement of asbestos abatement costs and other economic loss and property devaluation related to the presence of the asbestos-laden material. This action, which centers exclusively on property-related damages, doesn’t even touch the potential health hazard of having the substance in one’s home.*

While Grace sorts out its bankruptcy issues, the Baltimore Business Journal reported on Oct. 23 that the company has seen record profits in 2008, experiencing nearly 50 percent growth in its third-quarter earnings. The Journal reports the Columbia-based Grace (NYSE: GRA) enjoyed a 14 percent increase in sales since last year, with revenues topping $800 million. The report says,  “Grace’s pre-tax income from core operations, which factors out costs related to the company’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy, rose 6 percent to $82 million.”

The story quotes Grace Chief Financial Officer Hudson La Force as saying, “What’s really important is the condition of the financial markets in the middle of next year. We’re very focused on making sure when the time comes to make our exit, we have the financing in place to do that.”

Documents outlining the company’s Financial Reorganization Plan are available on the Grace web site at www.grace.com.

*PLEASE NOTE: TO LEARN MORE ABOUT FILING A ZAI CLAIM, PLEASE VISIT THE GRACE BANKRUPTCY CLAIMS INFORMATION SITE at www.graceclaims.com to download the forms necessary to file your claim. Deadline to file is OCTOBER 31, 2008.