Company Conspires To Cover-Up Dangerous Asbestos Poisoning in Montana And Gets Away With It

By Theodora Filis

As the 8th Annual International Asbestos Awareness Conference (Asbestos: An International Public Health Crisis) comes to an end today, an email from Libby, Montana, pops-up in my mailbox. It's from a gentlemen who has just been diagnosed with Pleural Thickening – a common side effect of exposure to asbestos, and an early warning sign for mesothelioma and asbestosis – seeking answers to questions he has no idea he should be asking.

Libby Montana Documentary Trailer

In February of 2004, W.R. Grace & Co. along with seven current or former executives were indicted in a federal court in Missoula, Montana, for breaking environmental laws and conspiring to cover up what the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has described as the biggest environmental disaster to human health it has ever faced.

According to the EPA: “W.R. Grace and its executives, as far back as the 1970’s, attempted to hide the fact that toxic asbestos was present in vermiculite products at the company’s Libby, Montana plant. The grand jury charged the defendants with conspiring to conceal information about the hazardous nature of the company’s asbestos contaminated vermiculite products, obstructing the government’s clean-up efforts, and wire fraud. To date, according to the indictment, approximately 1,200 residents [out of a population of about 3,000] of Libby have been identified as suffering from some kind of asbestos-related abnormality.”

A federal jury in Montana acquitted W.R. Grace and three of its former executives of knowingly exposing mine workers and residents of Libby, Montana, to asbestos poisoning and then covering up their actions.

W.R. Grace purchased the Zonolite mine, a branded trademark product produced from vermiculite, in 1963. The mine contained tremolite asbestos, winchite, and richterite (both fibrous amphiboles formed underground). Pure vermiculite does not contain asbestos and is non-toxic. Impure vermiculite may contain: asbestos, minor diopside, and remnants of biotit or phlogopite.

Investigations by the US Federal Government, found air samples from Libby, Montana, had high levels of fibrous tremolite asbestos, which is suspected of causing asbestos related diseases among former Zonolite employees and their families. In 1999, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, published a series of articles documenting extensive deaths and illness from the asbestos contaminated vermiculite at the Grace mine in Libby, Montana.

Reports claims that asbestos from the now-closed vermiculite mine on a mountain near Libby has killed 192 people and left at least 375 with fatal diseases. Thousands more who live or grew up in Libby are expected to die from asbestos-related diseases in the coming decades. The asbestos fibers contaminated not only workers at the mine, but also their families when they brought home the asbestos fibers on their clothing and in their hair. Even local ball fields and an athletic track were contaminated from fallout and fill.

Former President Bush, appointed Granta Y. Nakayama, head of the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA), the enforcement division of the EPA. At the time of his appointment, Nakayama was serving as a "Partner for Environmental Law and Product Safety" at Kirkland & Ellis, a law firm in Washington, DC, that was representing W.R. Grace in its troubles with the federal government. The Senate confirmed Nakayama on July 29, 2005. Nakayama's law firm helped Grace file for bankruptcy and restructure so it could continue doing business.

The Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution Act – the FAIR Act – sponsored by Patrick Leahy, the highest ranking Democrat in the Senate, and Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Arlen Specter. Many people in Libby, Montana believe this bill is nothing more than a way of pretending to help the victims of years of abuse by mining companies while actually making sure that those companies don't get sued too badly for all their wrongdoing.

The Fair Act established a $140 billion privately financed trust fund that would compensate asbestos claimants who agree to give up their right to sue. The bill also caps liability for companies that made or sold products containing asbestos. Companies routinely declare bankruptcy to avoid paying huge settlements due to lawsuits. To avoid paying out on asbestos claims hundreds of US companies have filed for bankruptcy.

A report on Nightline said: “The evidence is strong that the executives at Grace knew about the dangers of their product as far back as the 1960s, even before they bought the vermiculite mine in Libby. They suppressed evidence not only about their product but about the health of their employees. For more than thirty years they knowingly sent out a dangerous product that would be used in somewhere between 15 and 30 million homes across America.”

Several legal experts have raised questions about the evidence that was withheld from the jury because the judge deemed it overly prejudicial. David Uhlmann, University of Michigan law professor and former environmental crimes prosecutor at the Justice Department, told Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Andrew Schneider that, “Many questions now linger about what would have happened if the trial had been conducted in a manner that was fair to everyone involved.”

More than 250,000 asbestos-related suits have been filed against W. R. Grace. The company has closed its mine in Libby and has declared bankruptcy, restructured itself, and continues to make about $1.4 billion in sales per year.

What Would You Do If Your Government Knowingly and Willfully Put Your Life At Risk From Asbestos Exposure?

By Theodora Filis

Every year, over 10,000 people die from complications related to asbestos exposure in the US alone. Despite everything known about the danger of asbestos, halting its use has been a difficult process in Canada and the United States.

In the 1990s, many countries adopted bans on the use and importation of asbestos to protect their citizens – except the US and Canada – strong economic and political forces still conspire against the movement to ban asbestos.

When France announced in 1996 that it would ban the use of asbestos, Canada (a major exporter of chrysotile asbestos) felt threatened. The Canadian government took its concerns to the World Trade Organization (WTO) to argue that the ban was an “unreasonable restriction of international trade.”

However, dispute the resolution panel, the WTO rejected Canada’s argument, finding that France and other countries involved in the ban had valid public health concerns. Today, asbestos has been banned in more than 55 countries around the world, including all 25 countries in the European Union.

Why no ban in the US and Canada?

In 1989 the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued the Asbestos Ban and Phase Out Rule – later overturned in 1991 in the case of Corrosion Proof Fittings v. EPA.

Asbestos exposure has been known to cause malignant and non-malignant diseases such as lung cancer, asbestosis, and mesothelioma. Mesothelioma is a rare type of cancer that affects the lining of the lungs, heart, abdomen and other organs. The average age at diagnosis is 62 years of age, occurs about four times more frequently in men than in women, and is almost always caused by exposure to asbestos.

The life expectancy for mesothelioma patients is generally reported as less than one year following diagnosis, however, a patient's prognosis can be positively affected by numerous factors including how early the cancer is diagnosed and how aggressively it is treated.

The three widely accepted ways to treat mesothelioma are: surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. Studies show that a combination of these treatments can ease pain, help eliminate symptoms and slow the progress of mesothelioma cancer. Treatment options that are available depend heavily on what stage the mesothelioma is in when diagnosed.

This month, The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization(ADAO) – an independent organization founded by Linda Reinstein and Doug Larkin, will hold its 8th Annual International Asbestos Awareness Conference – Asbestos: An International Public Health Crisis, from March 30 – April 1, 2012, in Los Angeles, CA.

ADAO is an independent global organization dedicated to preventing asbestos-related diseases through education, advocacy and community. ADAO’s mission includes supporting global advocacy and advancing asbestos awareness, prevention, early detection, treatment, and resources for asbestos-related disease. For more information visit www.asbestosdiseaseawareness.org.

This year's conference will bring together renowned experts and asbestos victims in a united forum to enhance asbestos awareness, education, treatment, and collaboration.

Asbestos is a mineral fiber that has been used commonly in a variety of building construction materials for insulation and as a fire-retardant. Because of its fiber strength and heat resistant properties, asbestos has been used for a wide range of manufactured goods, mostly in building materials (roofing shingles, ceiling and floor tiles, paper products, and asbestos cement products), friction products (automobile clutch, brake, and transmission parts), heat-resistant fabrics, packaging, gaskets, and coatings.

When asbestos-containing materials are damaged or disturbed by repair, remodeling or demolition activities, microscopic fibers become airborne and can be inhaled into the lungs, where they can cause significant health problems.

Most Common Sources of Asbestos Exposure:
Workplace exposure to people that work in industries that mine, make or use asbestos products and those living near these industries, including: the construction industry (particularly building demolition and renovation activities), the manufacture of asbestos products (such as textiles, friction products, insulation, and other building materials), and during automotive brake and clutch repair work. Deteriorating, damaged, or disturbed asbestos-containing products such as insulation, fireproofing, acoustical materials, and floor tiles.

There are other countries where asbestos use is legal and, in some cases, on the rise. The Canadian government, having failed to win over the WTO, realized that it would have to work directly with developing countries to support a market for its asbestos.

In some countries, especially the developing nations of Asia, asbestos use, and exposure, is increasing.

One Year After Fukushima Japanese Fear Their Government May Have Backed Off

By Theodora Filis

The March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami, left thousands dead and caused extensive damage to buildings and infrastructure in northeastern Japan.

"Many individuals and companies from around the world sent donations after the [March 11, 2011 tsunami] disaster. The people who know Japan are worried about the situation as though it is happening to their own country. While the media continues to focus their attention on the nuclear disaster in Fukushima, we hope to report on what is happening to the other areas devastated by the tsunami."

Shinko Tana, the International Rescue Committee's (IRC) Japan adviser, in the Dec 21, 2011 edition of Japan's Fukkou Kamaishi Shimbun newspaper.

The Japanese government and people have made tremendous strides working to pull down the old, and build new houses and roads, cleaning vast territories of rubble, smashed cars and even planes and boats – an estimated 23 million tonnes of debris. Japan approved almost US$50 billion in spending aimed at reconstruction – the biggest building budget since the atomic disasters of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The overall cost of damage is estimated at more than $300 billion.

A year on from the Fukushima nuclear disaster, radiation fears continue to affect residents and food supplies along Japan’s north-east coast. Up to 8.5 tons of radioactive water have leaked from Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.

Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) claims that most of the leaked water is not radioactive, and has come from a dam. Though the company admitted that some of the water could be radioactive, it stressed that none of it has leaked to the sea.

Officials have tested close to 3,000 fish samples over the past year. Results of a contamination test from new born fish is due out next week. Radiation fears continue to affect those living in Fukushima city -- just 50 kilometres from the nuclear plant.

Radiation still restricts life in Japan’s northeast | euronews, world

Workers at the plant say conditions are slowly improving, but many are still struggling to come to terms with what the disaster will mean in the future. People live in fear, so far, workers at the plant have experienced little, if any effects from the massive doses of radiation to which they have been exposed.

It is only a matter of time before their health will be severely impacted, and within 3-5 years they will begin to see some signs of radiation poisoning.

Residents in the evacuation zone have been forced to leave and told they will never be able to return. There have been a large number of suicides, especially among farmers who depend on the land for their livelihood – land that will never again, in their lifetimes, be cleared for growing agriculture.

Last month Japan's ministry of health, reported the population of 128 million will fall by 30 per cent in the next half-century. The declining and ageing population puts pressure on the government to cope with increasing social-welfare costs, the aftermath of the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear fallout, and pay off Japan’s public debt – at over US$10 trillion – the worst in the industrialised world.

The Japanese fear their government may have backed off from the more important changes needed to guide the country through what its former prime minister, Naoto Kan, called Japan’s worst crisis since the second World War.

Good Morning California! How Long Have Gas Companies Been Fracking Around In Your Backyard?

By Theodora Filis

What most Californians don’t realize is that fracking has been taking place throughout their state for over sixty years. US towns and communities have been in the midst of an unprecedented gas drilling boom, using a process called hydraulic fracturing or "fracking." With each new drill comes frightening reports of poisoned drinking water, polluted air, mysterious animal deaths, industrial disasters and explosions.

Fracking involves injecting thousands of gallons of water, sand, and chemicals into the earth at extremely high pressure and speeds to fracture underground shale deposits thus releasing natural gas and oil. Homeowners living near fracked wells have been complaining that their drinking water has been contaminated with methane, a key component in natural gas.

California does not track the number of fracked wells, nor their location. The state's Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR) said that it "does not believe that fracking is widely used" in the state. More recently, DOGGR reported, that the practice is "used for a brief period to stimulate production of oil and gas wells," but added in its report, that "the division doesn't believe the practice is nearly as widespread as it is in the Eastern US for shale gas production."

Today, Californians are waking up to the unfortunate reality that hundreds of locations around their state, including nearby Monterey County, have been fracked. In an article, published by Mother Jones last week, said that according to a report released by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), fracking is much more common in California than the regulators would like you to believe.

According to Mother Jones, a team of EWG investigators has unearthed dozens of industry documents and academic papers indicating that the practice has been going on in at least six California counties for 60 years or more. And evidence suggests that it's still going strong: "We asked Halliburton, 'What percentage of wells are you fracking in Kern County, for example?,'" says Bill Allayud, EWG's California Director of Governmental Affairs. "And they said 50 to 60 percent of oil wells." A 2008 paper by the Halliburton subsidiary Pinnacle Technologies detailed the widespread current use of fracking in California.

Even after sixty years, the state of California is only now learning about fracking and how attractive their land is to gas companies. Officials, in Monterey County, have given the OK for a Denver based oil company, Venoco, to drill exploratory wells in the Hames Valley, using fracking technology. Hames Valley, home to oil drilling, will now see a boom in gas drilling.

DOGGR reported, it does not know where and how often fracking occurs in California because budget constraints have prevented them from developing regulations to address the practice. While the agency requires drilling permits and enforces groundwater protections, once those permits are acquired, drillers are allowed to employ techniques such as fracking to get the oil out of the ground without additional reporting.

California legislators have introduced a bill that would include some of the most stringent fracking laws in the country – if passed. The bill did get passed off the Assembly floor, last week, and is now being sent to the state Senate committee for approval.