Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Asbestos HUB

Asbestos HUB

DHHS To Provide $6M Grant For Libby Residents

Posted: 25 May 2009 05:10 PM PDT

Now that the jury has acquitted W.R. Grace & Company of charges of exposing residents in Libby to asbestos that killed hundreds, Sen. Max Baucus of Montana announced a $6 million grant from the Department of Health and Human Services to provide health care for residents suffering from asbestos-related diseases.

According to Baucus, the grant is a first for federal government money provided for medical care for people in Libby who fell ill after exposure to tremolite asbestos from W.R. Grace's vermiculite mine. The money also helps lay the groundwork for a future public health emergency declaration, Baucus said, which would authorize cleanup in Libby homes and require the federal government to provide screenings and health care for residents with asbestos-related sicknesses.

"You have no idea how important this is to me because I want to bring justice to the people of Libby," Baucus said. "This is huge; this is amazing. We've been fighting for this for so long."

Too bad the ineffectual federal prosecutors in the W.R. Grace case didn’t feel the same compunction.

W.R. Grace owned and operated a vermiculite asbestos mine in Libby for decades. But the mine also released tremolite asbestos which sickened people, even with no mining connections. Hundreds died and 2,000 more fell ill from asbestos-related complications.
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Sunday, May 17, 2009

Asbestos HUB

Asbestos HUB

Canada Releases Chrysotile Asbestos Risk Report

Posted: 17 May 2009 07:07 AM PDT

The Annals of Occupational Hygiene has published a long-awaited report about a debate on the risks of chrysotile, initiated by Health Canada.

The report discusses two meta-analyses of asbestos epidemiological studies for which exposure–response relationships could be estimated, specifically for the risks of chrysotile asbestos mined in Canada. These were Hodgson and Darnton (2000) (here designated H&D) and Berman and Crump (B&C) and general conclusions are as follows:

(1) Chrysotile often occurs in association with tremolite, which is an amphibole and much more persistent in the lung, and it is reasonable to expect that presence of a small amount of tremolite may increase the apparent hazard of the 'chrysotile'. H&D did not try to discriminate chrysotile cohorts according to the amount of tremolite, so the risk assigned by H&D to chrysotile may include an unknown contribution from tremolite. B&C used available information on the percentage of tremolite present, which is often incomplete, to try to isolate and remove the effect of tremolite from that of chrysotile, so insofar as this was successful, B&C’s estimates are for pure chrysotile without tremolite.

(2) For each cohort, H&D derived an average exposure and an average disease risk and used the results from different cohorts to estimate overall dose–effect relationships. B&C used the disease and exposure information on different subcohorts within each study and estimated the exposure–risk relationship within each study. This meant that H&D could use studies for which there was only one average exposure given, and their single aggregate exposure estimate per cohort was less vulnerable to misclassification of individuals. On the other hand, B&C’s approach enabled them to more systematically adjust for different background lung cancer rates in the cohorts.

(3) In line with classic asbestos risk assessments, B&C assumed linear relationships between disease and exposure, even though they observed some non-linearity for both lung cancer and mesothelioma, but for mesothelioma they assumed that risk depended on the cube of the time since first exposure. In contrast, H&D estimated the best-fitting non-linear relationships. The main difference between the linear and non-linear models shows at low exposures, where there are few epidemiological data to distinguish between them and where the risks are low.

(4) H&D distinguished between pleural and peritoneal mesotheliomas. B&C pooled the two mesotheliomas as one disease.

(5) B&C’s estimates include the Charleston cohort (see below), but H&D’s figures in the table exclude it. They stated the Charleston estimates separately as 'exceptional' (unexplainably high) but possible.

Read the report.
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Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Asbestos HUB

Asbestos HUB

Asbestos Widow Wins and Loses Lawsuits

Posted: 13 May 2009 05:48 PM PDT

A Florida jury awarded Betty McBride of Lynn Haven $995,600 in damages and medical bills from her husband’s mesothelioma death in May 2009.  So what’s the problem?  The party they found most responsible was not a defendant in the lawsuit and the judgment is not binding.

Woodrow McBride filed a wrongful death lawsuit on Aug. 10, 2006, against Foster Wheeler, General Electric and other companies that had products in two plants that McBride worked in from 1968 to 1996. McBride was diagnosed with mesothelioma in September 2005, and died on Sept. 20, 2006, at the age of 67.

The jury decided there was no negligence on any of the companies’ parts, but Gulf Power and Foster Wheeler did have a product that was the cause of McBride’s mesothelioma.  So they awarded Betty McBride $245,600 for her late husband’s medical bills.  Then they awarded her $225,000 for past pain and suffering and $525,000 for future pain and suffering.

The problem is with allocation of blame.  The jury found Gulf Power to be 60 percent liable and Foster Wheeler 25 percent liable. Each of the other companies was found to be 1 percent liable.

Gulf Power was never included in the lawsuit and the verdict was an example of an aspect of law called a “Fabre” decision. He said named plaintiffs are allowed by Florida law to name a “Fabre” defendant, who is not included in the lawsuit, as a way to shift blame away from themselves. “Fabre” defendants, however, are not responsible for damages awarded to a plaintiff, he said.

Gulf Power’s portion of the judgment would be $597,360, according to the verdict. Except they were never sued. So Betty McBride wins and loses.

Watch Tom Lamb report on the Asbestos News Minute.
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Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Asbestos HUB

Asbestos HUB

Things Are Looking Good at W.R. Grace

Posted: 12 May 2009 05:48 PM PDT

W.R. Grace was collectively found not guilty of conspiracy, violating the Clean Air Act and obstruction of justice in the contamination of the town of Libby, Montana. They can now exit from an eight year bankruptcy.

A conviction in the case would have meant more than $280 million in fines and restitution, and a delay in exit from bankruptcy. Not surprisingly, Grace stock went up 36 percent in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.

One former Libby resident reacted angrily to the verdict. Mike Crill, 54, yelled inside the courthouse, "What did they die for? Who's guilty for killing me? They're guilty of killing Mike Crill and his family and everybody."

Crill said his parents, uncle and father-in-law all died of asbestos-related diseases. Crill, who used to fill railroad boxcars with vermiculite at work, said he and his wife have both been diagnosed with scarring of the lungs.

Grace filed bankruptcy in 2001 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware, seeking protection from more than 100,000 claims for damages related to asbestosis, most of them unrelated to Libby.

Prosecutors alleged that the company and seven former executives conspired for decades to expose Libby residents to asbestos-contaminated vermiculite.

Asbestos-related diseases, including asbestosis and and mesothelioma, have killed more than 200 people in the Libby area and sickened more than 1,200. Libby residents die from asbestosis at a rate 40 to 80 times normal, the government said.

During the trial, Judge Molloy frequently criticized the prosecution's case outside the presence of the jury, and limited the evidence the government was permitted to present. Several of his pretrial rulings were reversed by the U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco before the start of the trial. Despite the roadblocks, W.R. Grace prevailed.

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Monday, May 11, 2009

Asbestos HUB

Asbestos HUB

W.R. Grace Trial Twist

Posted: 10 May 2009 07:23 PM PDT

W.R. Grace & Co. and three former executives were acquitted on charges that they knowingly let residents of Libby, Montana be exposed to asbestos mined there. 

During the course of the trial, which began in February, charges against two additional former executives were dropped.

The company filed for bankruptcy in 2001 after a slew of lawsuits by people who fell ill after being exposed to asbestos mined at the W.R. Grace facility in Libby, Montana. 

The company has filed plans to emerge from bankruptcy protection later this year.

The government had said Libby residents die from asbestosis, an asbestos-related disease, at 40 to 80 times the normal rate.

So it appears to be business as usual for W.R. Grace.
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Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Asbestos HUB

Asbestos HUB

The Trial in Libby Goes On

Posted: 05 May 2009 08:59 PM PDT

The New York Times reported in late April 2009 that despite "the failings" of federal prosecutors, he would not dismiss criminal charges against the big chemical products company, W.R. Grace, over the asbestos poisoning of the small town of Libby, Mont.

Judge Donald W. Molloy also said he would not throw out the testimony of the prosecution's star witness, Robert H. Locke, a former company executive who has apparently lied on the witness stand.

The judge dismissed all charges against one of the executives, leaving four to be tried.

Lawyers for Grace had demanded that all charges to be thrown out, accusing prosecutors of repeatedly violating court orders to turn over evidence.

The prosecutors stood before an angry Judge Molloy, and said they were sorry.

"The truth of the matter is that we just dropped the ball," said Tim Racicot, an assistant United States attorney.

Judge Molloy seemed to think so, responding with barbs about their judgment, ethics and tactics.
Judge Molloy said that he believed almost nothing Mr. Locke had told the jury, and that he also doubted the good faith of the prosecutors, whose members sat stone-faced before him.

"There's a failure in the process here," Judge Molloy said, addressing one of the prosecutors. "The question is, What do I do about it? I don't know what the remedy is here; you tell me."

The case is about what Grace executives knew from at least the 1970s about asbestos poisoning workers and residents. The company's lawyers have argued that the government knew of the concerns, too, and did nothing. We knew and did nothing but you knew and did nothing too so it’s ok?

The major question has been whether company studies about dust and asbestos constituted an effort to conceal the dangers, as prosecutors argued, or a good-faith effort to protect workers from those dangers, as the company contends.

As evidenced by the large cemetary, several hundred people in Libby have died from asbestos-related diseases, and many more have been sickened.

The former Grace executives who are charged, all now retired, face up to 15 years in prison if convicted of the most serious charges.

Read the full story.
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Monday, May 4, 2009

Asbestos HUB

Asbestos HUB

Highest Rate of Mesothelioma Deaths Happening in Maine

Posted: 03 May 2009 06:59 PM PDT

The Maine Public Broadcasting Network is reporting that the highest death rate from the disease per capita than anywhere else in the country.

“We noticed that death rate in Maine is 27.5 per million population — the highest rate in the United States,” says Ki Moon Bang, the senior epidemologist at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, which studied mesothelioma mortality rates from 1999 to 2005.

There are apparently naturally-occurring asbestos deposits where Maine borders New Brunswick and Quebec. As we know, there is still an active asbestos mine in Quebec.

The culprit is likely because Maine’s biggest employers in the past used asbestos, such as paper companies, chemical companies, and the shipyard industry.

By the time patients are diagnosed, they are usually given five to 16 months to live, seldom with any hope for a cure.

Read or listen to the broadcast.
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Friday, May 1, 2009

Asbestos HUB

Asbestos HUB

CDC Chart Showing Where the Asbestos Deaths Are Happening

Posted: 01 May 2009 09:26 AM PDT

Hopefully not happening in a state near you…..

The CDC has released a report on malignant mesothelioma mortality from 1999 to 2005, along with a US map showing mesothelioma deaths by state.

What? I want to see this.
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