In the Long Fight Against Asbestos, a Legal First

By Greg Gordon

Minneapolis Star Tribune Washington Bureau Correspondent

February 9, 2005

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- This week's indictment of W.R. Grace & Co. marks the first time that a major company's executives have faced possible jail time for allegedly hiding asbestos hazards from workers.

David Uhlmann, chief of the Justice Department's environmental crimes unit, called it "one of the most far-reaching environmental criminal cases that have been brought to date."

Barry Castleman, the Baltimore author of a book tracing asbestos' legal history, said he was "amazed, but pleased, to see that this form of public health protection is finally being applied."

"The first question I would ask is: Why not all the others?" said David Ozonoff, a Boston University professor of environmental health. He referred to a slate of bankrupt asbestos manufacturers whose products and working conditions contributed to a still unfolding disaster projected to kill as many as 500,000 workers.

The 10-count indictment handed up Monday accuses seven present and former Grace executives of a 26-year conspiracy to conceal from workers, their families and townsfolk that vermiculite mined in Libby, Mont., was contaminated with asbestos.

The same tainted ore was shipped to processing plants across the country, including two in northeast Minneapolis, where mounting numbers of workers and neighborhood residents have become sick or died from asbestos-related diseases.

Ozonoff said medical literature showed by 1930 that asbestos caused the disabling lung disease asbestosis; by 1949 that it caused lung cancer; and by 1960 that it caused mesothelioma, a rare and deadlier cancer. Asbestos makers knew even more, he said, but have been let "off the hook" by declaring bankruptcy.

In a phone interview, Uhlmann said he could not discuss why indictments were filed against Grace executives but not against executives at such companies as the bankrupt Johns-Manville Corp., which is subject to 600,000 worker injury claims related to asbestos.

Grace mined contaminated vermiculite for more than 50 years and spread it around the northwest Montana town of Libby.

Medical screening by federal health officials has shown that more than 1,200 miners and townsfolk there have lung abnormalities, and that 20 have died of mesothelioma, according to the indictment.

A Justice Department official, who requested anonymity, said the indictment against Grace was possible because, while the mine closed in 1990, the conspiracy allegedly continued into recent years, within the reach of a five-year statute of limitations. The indictment alleges Grace managers sought to obstruct an Environmental Protection Agency investigation into the extent of the disaster.

Grace has denied wrongdoing.

Castleman said officials at other companies "engaged in conduct that's pretty similar to W.R. Grace's" and had no reason to fear "they'd be in a room that doesn't take their gold card and locks on the other side of the door."

He said the Grace case "does set some kind of example for people in the business world" about sharing knowledge of lethal hazards with workers and the public.

Castleman said the late Tony Mazzocchi, a leader of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers union, "was always skeptical about how they never really busted the big guys."

"It looks like in this case, they actually went after some pretty high-level people."

Greg Gordon is at ggordon@mcclatchydc.com.

© Copyright 2005 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.

** POSTED FEBRUARY 8, 2005 **