Sprol

You’re looking at a place in Montana where the owners of the W.R. Grace Company knew what was killing the people in town, and said nothing.

They knew that the vermiculite ore that they were mining and shipping around the country was contaminated with tremolite, a rare and exceedingly toxic form of asbestos.

Unlike chrysotile (white asbestos), crocidolite (blue asbestos), amosite, and anthophyllite, tremolite has never been used as a commercially available asbestos. Not knowingly.

For thirty years factory management knew about it though, and did nothing but try to cover it up. With the complicity of the U.S. Federal Government, they were remarkably successful.

See the bright green, newly planted land near the center of the photo above? That’s a serious warning sign, like a fresh grave. "Reclaimed" land. Directly next door to the factory complex.

"In January 2002, Montana Governor Judy Martz requested that Libby be added to the NPL, using Montana’s one-time privilege of naming a site as its highest priority for designation to the NPL. EPA is conducting ongoing emergency removal actions to address asbestos contamination inyards, schools, and other processing areas in town."

"West of Libby, the Cabinet Mountains rise more than 8,000 feet, providing a beautiful and dramatic backdrop to the town of 2,700. Three miles east, as the winds blow, is a smaller mountain, Zonolite Mountain, the life-and-death mountain. Life, because more than 1,900 men and women earned their living at the mine. Death, because of the way the mine was operated. Death, because of the tremolite. The mine and mill processed an astonishing amount of asbestos."

"According to W.R. Grace records and court documents, nearly 300,000 pounds of asbestos a day went through the "dry mill," the primary ore-processing facility and the dustiest building on the property. By 1975, Grace had built a new mill and production had doubled, which means more than half a million pounds of asbestos a day were processed." Seattle Post-Intelligencer

"The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported that nearly 200 residents died from asbestos-related diseases – and that another 375 are currently sick. The EPA team set out to determine if there is any threat to the area today. Paul Peronard, the agency’s onsite coordinator in Libby, is in charge of the investigation. "This is certainly the largest incident at a single facility or workplace involved in terms of number of deaths and illnesses that I know of anywhere in the world," says Peronard. Georgia Institute of Technology

The W.R. Grace Company, which is based in Columbia, Maryland, and seven of its current and former executives are charged with knowingly placing nearby residents in imminent danger of death or serious injury. The case was about to go to trial. In criminal court, not civil court.

A judge recently delayed their criminal trial by four months. If I were cynical I would postulate that such an action had something to do with the U.S. Senate considering a bill that would remove the ability of citizens to sue in court for asbestos-related damages. This would protect companies like Grace from additional lawsuits. As well as all of Grace’s customers.

Pay attention to your right to petition a court. In the United States, the powers that be are trying to eliminate your right to sue. When they mouth disdain for ‘trial lawyers’ they are talking about your rights as a citizen to seek redress of grievances. For the things that hurt you and your family. Against large, faceless private tyrannies.

It’s different when it’s your health, or that of someone you love.

It’s the things that are still confidential that embody why corporate interests don’t want you to be able to sue. Things you don’t know about yet. Things they hope you won’t find out.

The contaminated vermiculite ore was shipped all over the country to processing stations, where it was made into even more contaminated products, for thirty years.

Products that aren’t supposed to contain asbestos, but do.

A bonus. A big secret.

Asbestos, which are tiny bundles of rock fibers, become embedded in lung tissue. They are inorganic so they cannot be processed by the body, and eventually cause asbestosis, mesothelioma, and other cancers. Smokers exposed to asbestos are at a greatly increased risk for some of these diseases, especially cancer. However, smoking cigarettes does not seem to affect the incidence of meothelioma among people exposed to asbestos.

See also, the population of a small town in Montana named Libby.

See also, people around factories in cities all over America. Chicago. Los Angeles. Dallas. Sacramento. Trenton. Spokane.

Why isn’t this on the news?