Residents are still reeling after a jury on May 12 acquitted W.R. Grace and three executives of knowingly exposing residents to asbestos and then covering it up. After more than 200 deaths and 1200 or more instances of lung cancer and other diseases in the town related to asbestos exposure, folks there just can’t see how the company was freed from all responsibility.

W.R. Grace owned and operated a vermiculite mine near the town for decades; the mine was contaminated with tremolite asbestos, a substance known as early as the 1950′s to cause mesothelioma. The substance was linked to other lung diseases much earlier. The U.S. Government has called the Libby, Montana area the largest environmental disaster due to the extensive asbestos contamination.

Federal prosecutors indicted W.R. Grace and three executives for charges such as trying to “defraud the United States and others by impairing, impeding and frustrating” the EPA’s investigation of the mine in 1999, conspiring to “knowingly release” asbestos, conspiring to hide the hazards of inhaling asbestos from workers and neighbors, wire fraud, obstruction of justice, and more. The trial lasted 10 weeks.

Some legal experts question the fairness of the trial: in particular, they question the Judge’s decision to withhold evidence from the jury because it was deemed overly prejudicial. With one individual still awaiting trial in connection with the case, the Office of Public Affairs and the Department of Justice are withholding comment on the jury’s finding.

Fred Festa, Chairman, CEO and President of W. R. Grace said, in a written statement, that he was “gratified” by the verdict. He also stated that, “the company worked hard to keep the operation in compliance with the laws and standards of the day.”

With the stakes for W.R. Grace so high, we can certainly see why they were “gratified” by the acquittal. Tragically, the residents of Libby have no such reprieve. The pain and suffering caused by their asbestos exposure will slash at this community for years to come.

Kirk Johnson of the New York Times (NYT 2/19/09) has a really great article on the federal criminal trial of executives of WR Grace & Company taking place in Missoula, Montana for deaths (at least 200) and disabilities from asbestosis, mesothelioma, and lung cancer arising from the Vermiculite Mine in Libby, Montana. The article corrects some of the tremendous amount of misinformation out in the media about this matter, which the article accurately describes as “one of American history’s worst industrial disasters.”

First of all, the mine in Libby (a truly remote place in the Northwest corner of Montana) was not an asbestos mine, it was a vermiculite mine. Vermiculite itself is pretty harmless stuff used in building materials, potting soil and the like, but the vermiculite in the Libby mine was contaminated with amphibole asbestos. Second, the asbestos liability of WR Grace nationally that drove it into bankruptcy has virtually nothing to do with the Libby operation – it has to do with mined asbestos that was added to WR Grace products, in particular the sprayed fireproofing/insulation product known as Monokote (MK 3 was the last version to have asbestos added). Third, the apologists for the asbestos industry who prattle about what industry “really” knew in the 1930s and 40s can put a sock in it. WR Grace only got the mine (as a part of a purchase of the Zonolite company, from which the Monkote product line also came) in 1963 and became aware of the amphibole contamination hazard in the in 1970s at the latest, and continued to operate the mine until 1990.

There are difficulties of proof, First Amendment issues (can a company say something publicly that it knows is bogus, is that constitutionally protected speech?) and, of course, the federal prosecutors have to prove every element beyond a reasonable doubt. The five executives in the dock are facing up to 15 years in the can if they are convicted. Unfortunately for them, executives of big corporations aren’t very popular right now.