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Asbestos Podcast EP40 Transcript

From WikiMesothelioma — Mesothelioma Knowledge Base


Episode 40: Libby, Montana

Full transcript from Asbestos: A Conspiracy 4,500 Years in the Making — a 52-episode documentary podcast produced by Danziger & De Llano, LLP.

Episode Information
Series Asbestos: A Conspiracy 4,500 Years in the Making
Season 1
Episode 40
Title Libby, Montana
Arc Arc 8 — The Reckoning (Chapter 5)
Era Covered 1919–2009 — the start of Libby vermiculite supply through the Missoula acquittals and the first CERCLA public health emergency declaration; the cleanup and the diagnoses continue today
Produced by Charles Fletcher
Research and writing Charles Fletcher with Claude AI
Listen Apple Podcasts · Spotify · YouTube
Episode page Episode 40 on Mesothelioma Lawyers Near Me

Episode Summary

Episode 40 brings Arc 8 to a single town. A vermiculite mine on the mountain above Libby, Montana supplied more than 70 percent of the vermiculite sold in the United States between 1919 and 1990, when W.R. Grace & Co. — which had operated the mine from 1963 — closed it.[1][2] The vermiculite was naturally contaminated with tremolite, an amphibole asbestos among the most lethal forms known, and every stage of mining and processing put it into the air over the town.[1] The mine's waste tailings were distributed free throughout the community — used as fill for school running tracks and an outdoor ice rink, and taken by residents for gardens — while the vermiculite itself was sold nationwide as Zonolite attic insulation.[2][1]

Internal company documents from the 1960s and 70s tracked disease among Libby workers through chest X-rays the company collected and reviewed, and by the late 1970s Grace had internal epidemiological, medical and toxicological studies showing tremolite's toxicity that were not turned over to regulators as required.[2] The story surfaced nationally in 1999, when an investigative series in a Seattle newspaper documented the deaths; the EPA responded within weeks, and Libby was placed on the Superfund program's National Priorities List in October 2002.[3][2][4] On June 17, 2009, the EPA did something it had never done in the history of the Superfund law: it declared a public health emergency at Libby under CERCLA — the first such declaration ever made under the statute.[5] The cleanup has investigated more than 7,600 homes and businesses and completed remediation at more than 2,600 of them, removing over a million cubic yards of contaminated soil, and continues today.[4]

The same year the emergency was declared, the one federal criminal prosecution in the asbestos story's hundred-year history ended. A grand jury had indicted W.R. Grace and seven of its current and former executives in February 2005 on conspiracy, Clean Air Act knowing-endangerment, obstruction and wire fraud charges.[2] After a nearly three-month trial in Missoula, the jury acquitted the company and the three executives who remained defendants, returning its verdict on May 8, 2009 after less than two days of deliberation.[6][7] The reckoning arrived by a different route: W.R. Grace had filed Chapter 11 in 2001 under the weight of asbestos claims, and the settlement trust created out of that bankruptcy — currently paying claims at 30.1 percent of their full value — compensates Libby families today, alongside everyone else the company's products reached.[8][9] Because asbestos disease can take decades to appear, people in Libby are still being diagnosed.

Key Takeaways

  • A single mine poisoned an entire town. The vermiculite mine above Libby, Montana supplied more than 70 percent of the vermiculite sold in the United States between 1919 and 1990 — all of it contaminated with tremolite asbestos.[1]
  • W.R. Grace ran it for nearly three decades. Grace acquired the mine in 1963 and operated it until the 1990 closure.[2]
  • Exposure did not require a job. The mine's waste tailings were distributed free for use in school running tracks and an ice rink, and residents took vermiculite for their own gardens; the material was also sold nationally as Zonolite attic insulation.[2][1]
  • The company had internal knowledge it did not disclose. By the late 1970s, Grace held its own epidemiological and toxicological studies on tremolite's dangers and did not turn them over to regulators as legally required.[2]
  • A 1999 newspaper investigation broke the story nationally. The EPA responded within weeks, and Libby was placed on the Superfund National Priorities List in October 2002.[3][2][4]
  • Libby is the first CERCLA public health emergency ever declared. On June 17, 2009, the EPA made that determination for the first time in the history of the Superfund law.[5]
  • The one criminal prosecution in the asbestos story ended in acquittal. W.R. Grace and seven executives were indicted in February 2005; after a nearly three-month trial, the company and the three remaining executive defendants were acquitted on all counts on May 8, 2009.[2][6][7]
  • Compensation arrived through bankruptcy, not the courtroom. W.R. Grace's 2001 Chapter 11 produced a settlement trust that pays Libby claims today — currently at 30.1 percent of value.[9]
  • Community and residential exposure can qualify for compensation. Libby proves asbestos claims do not require an employment record — an address can be an exposure history.

Key Concepts

An Entire Zip Code as an Exposure Site

Libby is the series' clearest proof that asbestos exposure does not require an occupation. The delivery mechanisms were civic rather than industrial: school running tracks and an ice rink built on donated mine tailings, gardens filled with waste vermiculite, and attics insulated with the same contaminated material sold nationwide as Zonolite.[2][1] Miners' wives who never set foot on the mountain were sickened by the dust carried home on work clothes.

The Free Tailings

For decades the mine gave its waste away rather than paying to dispose of it. Federal prosecutors later alleged that Grace and its officials "permitted [contaminated vermiculite] to be distributed throughout the Libby community," including tailings supplied to local schools for running-track and ice-rink foundations and vermiculite given to residents for garden use.[2]

Tremolite Contamination

Tremolite is an amphibole asbestos, a different mineral from the chrysotile that dominated commercial asbestos use, and it ran naturally through the Libby vermiculite deposit rather than being mined on purpose.[1] Every stage of mining and processing aerosolized it over the town.

Two Verdicts, Same Year

2009 produced both the Missoula acquittals and the first CERCLA public health emergency in Superfund history — the criminal courts found no one guilty in the same year the environmental machinery declared, for the first time ever, that a contaminated site rose to the level of a public health emergency.[5][6]

Reckoning as Paperwork

The one criminal prosecution in the asbestos story's hundred-year history ended in acquittal.[6] The compensation that reached Libby families arrived instead through W.R. Grace's 2001 bankruptcy and the settlement trust it produced — paid as a documented percentage of claim value, without a verdict.[8]

Frequently Asked Questions

What happened in Libby, Montana?

Libby is a town of under 3,000 people in northwest Montana where a vermiculite mine supplied more than 70 percent of the vermiculite sold in the United States between 1919 and 1990 — nearly three decades of it under W.R. Grace & Co., which acquired the mine in 1963 and operated it until the 1990 closure.[1][2] The vermiculite was contaminated with tremolite asbestos, and the mine's waste tailings were distributed free throughout the town, including as fill for school running tracks and an ice rink.[2] After a 1999 newspaper investigation, the EPA responded and placed Libby on the Superfund National Priorities List in October 2002; in 2009 it declared the first public health emergency ever made under CERCLA.[3][4][5] Because asbestos disease can take decades to appear, people in Libby are still being diagnosed.

What is Zonolite insulation and is it dangerous?

Zonolite is the brand name under which vermiculite from the Libby mine was sold nationally, mostly as lightweight, pour-it-yourself attic insulation; the mine supplied more than 70 percent of the vermiculite sold in the United States, and most vermiculite insulation nationwide traces back to it.[1] Because it is contaminated with tremolite asbestos, the EPA's guidance is specific: if you do not disturb it, you are unlikely to be exposed, but disturbing or removing it releases fibers — the agency recommends leaving it undisturbed and having any removal done by a trained, accredited asbestos abatement contractor.[1]

What is tremolite asbestos?

Tremolite is an amphibole asbestos — a different mineral from the chrysotile that dominated commercial asbestos use, and one of the most potent forms known. It was never mined on purpose at Libby; it ran naturally through the vermiculite deposit, and every stage of mining and processing put it into the air over the town.[1]

Were W.R. Grace executives convicted for Libby?

No. In February 2005 a federal grand jury indicted W.R. Grace and seven current and former executives on a ten-count indictment covering conspiracy, Clean Air Act knowing-endangerment, obstruction of the government's cleanup efforts, and wire fraud.[2] After a nearly three-month trial in the federal courthouse in Missoula, the jury acquitted the company and the three executives who remained defendants, returning its verdict on May 8, 2009 after less than two days of deliberation.[6][7] No one has ever been criminally convicted for any part of the asbestos story.

What was the first public health emergency declared under CERCLA?

Libby, Montana. On June 17, 2009, the EPA declared a public health emergency at the Libby Superfund site under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act — the first time the agency had ever made that determination at any site under the statute.[5] The cleanup has investigated more than 7,600 homes and businesses, completed remediation at more than 2,600 of them, and removed over a million cubic yards of contaminated soil; it continues today.[4]

Can Libby residents and others with community (non-occupational) exposure still file claims?

Yes. Asbestos compensation does not require an employment record — Libby is the clearest proof, since residents and miners' family members who never set foot on the mountain were sickened by tailings and take-home dust. W.R. Grace filed Chapter 11 in 2001, and the settlement trust that emerged from the bankruptcy — currently paying claims at 30.1 percent of value — compensates Libby families today, alongside everyone else the company's products reached.[9] Community exposure claims run on residential and environmental history rather than work records, and trust claims are separate from lawsuits and VA benefits, which can be pursued at the same time where they apply.

Full Transcript

Cold Open: An Entire Zip Code

Host 1: Picture a small town in northwest Montana. Mountains, a river, about twenty-seven hundred souls. The Little League field is built on material the local mine gave away for free. So are the running tracks at the school. People used it in their gardens, their driveways, the insulation in their attics. It glitters when the light hits it. Kids played in piles of it — it pops like popcorn when you heat it, and they'd put it on the woodstove to watch.

Host 2: Every sentence of that was a delivery mechanism, wasn't it.

Host 1: Every sentence. The material was vermiculite from the mine on Zonolite Mountain, and the vermiculite was laced with tremolite — an amphibole asbestos, one of the most lethal forms known. The mine operated from 1919 to 1990. Seventy years. The company that ran it for the last three decades was W.R. Grace.

Host 2: How many?

Host 1: More than four hundred dead. More than twenty-eight hundred sick — in a town of under three thousand people.

Host 2: Today on Asbestos: A Conspiracy 4,500 Years in the Making—

Host 1: Episode 40: Libby, Montana.

Host 2: An entire zip code as an exposure site.

Host 2: Asbestos: A Conspiracy 4,500 Years in the Making is brought to you by Danziger & De Llano, because every diagnosis deserves a team who's been through it. dandell.com. That's D-A-N-D-E-L-L dot com.

The Product and the Contamination

Host 1: Hold last episode in your head while we do this one. The Fifth Circuit struck down the asbestos ban in October 1991. The Libby mine had closed the year before — 1990 — after seventy years of operation. So understand: everything this episode describes happened under the regulatory system everyone told themselves was adequate.

Host 2: Start with the product. What was Libby actually shipping?

Host 1: Vermiculite — a mineral that expands when heated, like popcorn. Sold under the brand name Zonolite, mostly as attic insulation. Cheap, light, pour-it-yourself. It went into millions of American homes. Some of it is still up there — which we'll come back to, because it matters to people listening right now.

Host 2: And the contamination. Tremolite isn't the asbestos we've spent thirty-nine episodes on.

Host 1: Different mineral, same disease — worse, by potency. Most of this series has been about chrysotile and the amphiboles used commercially. Tremolite was never mined on purpose. In Libby it didn't have to be — it ran through the vermiculite deposit, and every stage of mining and processing put it in the air. The dust settled on the town for seventy years.

What the Company Knew

Host 2: What did the company know, and when?

Host 1: The pattern you already know from Arc 5 — the same one from the buried animal studies in Episode 23. Internal company documents from the 1960s and 70s tracked disease among Libby workers — chest X-rays the company collected and reviewed. The workers weren't told what the films showed. The town wasn't told what the dust carried. The tailings kept getting given away — the ballfield, the tracks, the gardens.

Host 2: The company was screening its workers for a disease it was simultaneously handing out at the Little League field.

Host 1: That's the sentence, yes.

1999 and the First CERCLA Emergency

Host 2: How does it finally surface? Seventy years is a long time for a town to not know why it's coughing.

Host 1: People in Libby knew something was wrong — miners' wives were dying, and they'd never set foot on the mountain. It surfaced nationally in 1999, when an investigative reporter at a Seattle newspaper published a series documenting the deaths. The EPA arrived within weeks. What they found made Libby a Superfund site — and in 2009, the agency did something it had never done in the history of the program: it declared a public health emergency under CERCLA. The first one ever.

Host 2: First ever. Out of every contaminated site in America since the law passed.

Host 1: Libby is where the machinery finally said: this one is different. The cleanup has consumed hundreds of millions of dollars, thousands of properties — and it is still going. People in Libby are still being diagnosed today, because the latency clock doesn't care that the mine closed in 1990.

Host 2: Libby families didn't have employer records — they had addresses. Exposure doesn't need a paystub to qualify. Danziger & De Llano maps every source a family qualifies for and starts all of them at once — months, not years. dandell.com.

The Indictment

Host 2: Now the part I've been waiting thirty-nine episodes for. Criminal charges. Actual prosecutors, actual indictments.

Host 1: February 2005. A federal grand jury indicted W.R. Grace and several of its executives — conspiracy, Clean Air Act violations including knowing endangerment, obstruction. For the first time in this entire story, the people who made the decisions faced a courtroom where the penalty wasn't a check. The trial ran in Missoula in 2009.

Host 2: And?

Host 1: Acquitted. The company and every executive who stood trial. Not guilty, across the board.

The Acquittal

Host 2: Four hundred dead in one town, a paper trail running back to the sixties, and the one criminal case in a hundred years of this story ends in acquittal.

Host 1: The government's case had real problems — excluded evidence, witnesses the jury didn't trust, charges that had to thread a statute never built for a slow-motion disaster. I can give you the legal autopsy. What I can't give you is a version of this series where anyone, anywhere, was ever criminally convicted for any of it. Libby was the attempt. Libby was the acquittal.

The Trust

Host 2: So the criminal courts said not guilty. What did the other machinery say — the machinery from Episodes 36 and 37?

Host 1: W.R. Grace had already filed Chapter 11 in 2001, under the weight of asbestos claims from Libby and everywhere else its products reached. Out of that bankruptcy came a settlement trust — one of the sixty-plus. Billions set aside. Claims from Libby families run through it today, alongside everyone else's.

Host 2: The only court that ever made them pay was the one where nobody has to say guilty.

Host 1: That's the reckoning this arc is named for. It arrives — but it arrives as paperwork, at a percentage, without a verdict.

Host 2: One more story, because Libby proves exposure doesn't need a job title. Navairre was twenty-eight when she was diagnosed with peritoneal mesothelioma — no mining, no shipyard, no known exposure at all. She was given two years. She found the specialists at NIH, became one of the early adopters of a treatment called HIPEC, and twenty-one years later she is still working and still advocating for patients. Her story is in Beating the Odds: Surviving Mesothelioma, compiled by Dave Foster of Danziger & De Llano — free to any family facing a diagnosis. Call the firm or visit dandell.com — D-A-N-D-E-L-L dot com.

Host 1: Paul Danziger and Rod De Llano founded the firm in 1995. Nearly two billion dollars recovered. Over a thousand families. Cases in all fifty states.

Host 2: The consultation is free, seven days a week. dandell.com.

Closing and Tease

Host 1: You've been listening to Asbestos: A Conspiracy 4,500 Years in the Making. Episode 40: Libby, Montana.

Host 2: Research, writing, and production for this series is supported by Danziger and De Llano, a national mesothelioma law firm with over 30 years of experience and nearly two billion dollars recovered for victims and their families.

Host 1: Next time: September 11, 2001. Two towers fall in Manhattan, and hundreds of tons of asbestos go into the air over the most densely populated square mile in America. The first responders who ran in. The residents who breathed it for months. A health crisis on a twenty-year fuse — and this time, the whole country watched the exposure happen live.

Host 2: The one exposure site everyone remembers, and the one disease nobody was warned about.

Host 1: Episode 41: September 11, 2001. On Asbestos: A Conspiracy 4,500 Years in the Making.

Host 2: The company was named Grace. Nobody in Libby got any.

Host 1: The mine closed in 1990. The diagnoses didn't. That's where we leave it — for now.

Named Entities

Entity Role / Context
W.R. Grace & Co. Chemical company that acquired the Libby vermiculite mine in 1963 and ran it until the 1990 closure.[2] Indicted with seven current and former executives in February 2005; acquitted with three remaining executive defendants at trial in Missoula on May 8, 2009.[2][6] Filed Chapter 11 in 2001; the resulting settlement trust pays Libby claims today.[8]
Libby, Montana Town of under 3,000 people in northwest Montana beneath the vermiculite mine. Superfund site since October 2002; location of the first public health emergency ever declared under CERCLA (2009).[4][5] New diagnoses continue today.
Zonolite Mountain mine Vermiculite mine above Libby that supplied more than 70 percent of the vermiculite sold in the United States between 1919 and 1990; operated by W.R. Grace & Co. from 1963 until the 1990 closure.[1][2] The deposit was naturally laced with tremolite asbestos; waste tailings were distributed free to the town, including as fill for school running tracks and an ice rink.[2]
Zonolite (brand) Brand name under which Libby vermiculite was sold nationally, mostly as cheap pour-it-yourself attic insulation; most vermiculite attic insulation in the United States traces back to the Libby mine.[1] EPA guidance: leave it undisturbed, and have any removal done by a trained asbestos abatement contractor.[1]
Tremolite asbestos An amphibole asbestos, a different mineral from commercially mined chrysotile, among the most potent forms known. Never mined on purpose; in Libby it ran naturally through the vermiculite deposit.[1]
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Responded to Libby within weeks of the 1999 investigative series; placed the site on the Superfund National Priorities List in October 2002, and in 2009 declared a public health emergency under CERCLA — the first in the program's history.[3][4][5] Runs the ongoing cleanup and publishes the do-not-disturb guidance on Zonolite attic insulation.[1]
W.R. Grace settlement trust Asbestos settlement trust created out of Grace's 2001 Chapter 11 — one of the sixty-plus trusts in the system (Episodes 36-37). Currently paying claims at 30.1 percent of value; pays claims from Libby families today, alongside everyone else the company's products reached.[9]
Danziger and De Llano National mesothelioma law firm supporting the series. Founded 1995; over 30 years of experience cited in the series close; nearly $2 billion recovered for victims and their families; over a thousand families represented.
  • United States v. W.R. Grace & Co. (10-count indictment, February 7, 2005; tried District of Montana, Missoula, 2009) — Federal criminal prosecution of W.R. Grace and seven current and former executives: conspiracy, Clean Air Act violations including knowing endangerment, obstruction of the government's cleanup, and wire fraud.[2] After a nearly three-month trial, the jury acquitted the company and the three remaining executive defendants on all counts on May 8, 2009.[6][7]
  • CERCLA public health emergency (June 17, 2009) — The EPA's declaration at Libby under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act — the first public health emergency ever made under the statute.[5]
  • Superfund National Priorities List designation (October 2002) — Libby was added to the NPL following the EPA's 1999 response; the cleanup has investigated more than 7,600 properties and completed remediation at more than 2,600 of them.[4]
  • Clean Air Act "knowing endangerment" — A core criminal charge in the Grace indictment, alongside conspiracy, obstruction and wire fraud.[2]
  • Chapter 11 (2001) and the trust channel — W.R. Grace's bankruptcy under the weight of asbestos claims, resolved through a settlement trust on the model examined in Episodes 36 and 37: compensation as a documented percentage of claim value, without a verdict.[8]
  • The Fifth Circuit ban vacatur (October 1991) — Series continuity from Episode 39: the asbestos ban was struck down the year after the Libby mine closed; everything in this episode happened under the regulatory system the ban was meant to replace.

Key Facts and Statistics

Figure Detail
1919–1990[1] Span during which the Libby mine supplied over 70% of U.S. vermiculite sales, ending with its 1990 closure[1]
70%+[1] Share of all vermiculite sold in the United States that once came from the Libby mine[1]
1963[2] Year W.R. Grace acquired the mine, running it for nearly three decades until the 1990 closure[2]
1999[3] Investigative newspaper series documents the Libby deaths; the EPA responds within weeks[3][2]
October 2002[4] Libby is placed on the Superfund program's National Priorities List[4]
7,600+ / 2,600+[4] Homes and businesses investigated / cleanup completed, as of the EPA's most recent public accounting[4]
1,000,000+ cubic yards[4] Contaminated soil removed in the Libby cleanup[4]
February 7, 2005[2] Federal grand jury indicts W.R. Grace and seven executives on a 10-count indictment[2]
June 17, 2009[5] EPA declares the first public health emergency ever made under CERCLA[5]
May 8, 2009[6] Missoula jury acquits W.R. Grace and its three remaining executive defendants on all counts, after less than two days of deliberation[6]
2001[8] W.R. Grace files Chapter 11
30.1%[9] The W.R. Grace trust's current claim payment percentage[9]

Timeline

Date Event
1919 The Libby mine begins supplying vermiculite to the U.S. market, a span that will run to 1990[1]
1963 W.R. Grace & Co. acquires the mine[2]
1960s–70s Internal company documents track disease among Libby workers — chest X-rays collected and reviewed; by the late 1970s Grace holds internal studies on tremolite's toxicity it does not disclose to regulators[2]
1990 The mine closes, ending the Zonolite Mountain vermiculite operation[1]
October 1991 The Fifth Circuit strikes down the EPA asbestos ban (Episode 39) — the year after the mine closed
1999 An investigative series in a Seattle newspaper documents the Libby deaths; the EPA responds within weeks[3][2]
October 2002 Libby is placed on the Superfund National Priorities List[4]
2001 W.R. Grace files Chapter 11 under the weight of asbestos claims; a settlement trust emerges from the bankruptcy[8]
February 7, 2005 A federal grand jury indicts W.R. Grace and seven executives — conspiracy, Clean Air Act knowing endangerment, obstruction, wire fraud[2]
May 8, 2009 After a nearly three-month trial in Missoula, the jury acquits W.R. Grace and its three remaining executive defendants on all counts[6][7]
June 17, 2009 The EPA declares a public health emergency at Libby under CERCLA — the first ever made under the statute[5]
Present The cleanup continues, and people in Libby are still being diagnosed, because the latency clock doesn't care that the mine closed in 1990

References

  1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 1.20 1.21 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, "Protect Your Family from Asbestos-Contaminated Vermiculite Insulation." States that "a mine near Libby, Montana, was the source of over 70 percent of all vermiculite sold in the United States from 1919 to 1990," that this vermiculite was contaminated with asbestos, and that it "was used in the majority of vermiculite insulation in the United States" and "often sold under the brand name Zonolite." EPA guidance: if you do not go into the attic or disturb the insulation, exposure is unlikely; disturbance releases fibers; any removal should be performed by a trained, accredited asbestos abatement contractor. U.S. EPA — Protect Your Family from Asbestos-Contaminated Vermiculite Insulation
  2. ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16 2.17 2.18 2.19 2.20 2.21 2.22 2.23 2.24 2.25 2.26 2.27 2.28 2.29 U.S. Department of Justice, "W.R. Grace and Executives Charged with Fraud, Obstruction of Justice, and Endangering Libby, Montana Community," press release, February 7, 2005. Confirms a federal grand jury in the District of Montana returned a 10-count indictment against W.R. Grace and seven current and former Grace executives (Alan Stringer, Henry Eschenbach, Jack Wolter, William McCaig, Robert Bettacchi, O. Mario Favorito, Robert Walsh) for knowingly endangering Libby residents and concealing information about the health effects of its vermiculite mining operations. States that "W.R. Grace operated a vermiculite mine in Libby, Montana from 1963 to 1990," that beginning in the late 1970s the defendants held internal epidemiological, medical and toxicological studies on tremolite's toxicity that were not turned over to EPA as required, and that "W.R. Grace and its officials distributed asbestos-contaminated vermiculite and permitted it to be distributed throughout the Libby community," including "distributing vermiculite 'tailings' to the Libby schools for use as foundations for running tracks and an outdoor ice skating rink" and "allowing residents to take waste vermiculite for use in their gardens." Records that "In 1999, EPA responded to reports of asbestos contamination in and around Libby, Montana," and that the site was ultimately "declared a Superfund site by EPA." U.S. Department of Justice — W.R. Grace and Executives Charged
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 USC Center for Health Journalism, "Q&A with Andrew Schneider Part 1: What to do when the big story finds you." Confirms Andrew Schneider reported on Libby, Montana beginning in 1999 for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, in a series he titled "Uncivil Action," which documented the town's asbestos deaths and preceded the EPA's response. USC Center for Health Journalism — Q&A with Andrew Schneider
  4. ↑ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 4.11 4.12 4.13 4.14 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Libby Asbestos Superfund Site Profile (Site ID 0801744). Confirms the site was placed on the Superfund program's National Priorities List in October 2002, that the mine closed in 1990, and that cleanup work has investigated "over 7,600 homes and businesses" with cleanup completed at "over 2,600 homes and businesses in Libby and Troy" as of November 2018, removing "more than one million cubic yards of contaminated soil" and "more than 30,000 cubic yards of contaminated building material." U.S. EPA — Libby Asbestos Site Profile
  5. ↑ 5.00 5.01 5.02 5.03 5.04 5.05 5.06 5.07 5.08 5.09 5.10 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, press release announcing the public health emergency declaration at Libby, Montana, June 17, 2009 (EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, with HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius). States: "This is the first time EPA has made a determination under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) that conditions at a site constitute a public health emergency." Announces a coordinated response with the Department of Health and Human Services, which "is making available a short-term grant" for asbestos-related medical care for residents of Libby and Troy, Montana (no dollar figure given for this grant). U.S. EPA — Libby Public Health Emergency Declaration
  6. ↑ 6.00 6.01 6.02 6.03 6.04 6.05 6.06 6.07 6.08 6.09 "Jury Acquits W.R. Grace and Execs in Landmark Criminal Asbestos Case," ABA Journal, May 2009. Confirms a jury in Missoula, Montana "acquitted chemical products company W.R. Grace & Co. and three former executives on all charges" — conspiracy, Clean Air Act violations, and obstruction of justice — after "less than two days of deliberations," with the verdict returned May 8, 2009. ABA Journal — Jury Acquits W.R. Grace and Execs
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 Kirk Johnson, "W.R. Grace Cleared in Asbestos Case," The New York Times, May 9, 2009 (reprinted by Mines and Communities). States the trial ran "nearly three months" and concluded with deliberations lasting "less than two days," confirming that "a federal court jury on Friday acquitted the big chemical products company W. R. Grace and three of its former executives on all charges." Mines and Communities — reprint of Kirk Johnson, The New York Times
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 Independent public tracker of the U.S. asbestos bankruptcy trust system, W.R. Grace Asbestos PI Trust entry, confirming the trust was established in 2014 out of W.R. Grace's 2001 Chapter 11 filing and continues to process and pay claims. Compiled from annual reports and other documents filed in the trust's bankruptcy docket and updated weekly. It is built by the team behind this podcast; the series discloses this on-mic. AsbestosTrusts.org — W.R. Grace Asbestos PI Trust
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 WRG Asbestos PI Trust, official trust website. States: "The current payment percentage for WRG is 30.1% of scheduled value for Expedited Review and 30.1% of the gross settlement value for Individual Review." The Trust is administered under Trust Distribution Procedures pursuant to W.R. Grace's confirmed Chapter 11 plan of reorganization; payment percentages are set and revised by the Trustees under Section 4.2/4.3 of those Procedures, with formal notice issued to claimants on each change (e.g. the Trust's May 30, 2023 notice, which set the percentage then in effect at 31.7%, superseded by later re-determinations). WRG Asbestos PI Trust — official site

Primary Sources

Trust Claims and Compensation

Series Navigation

Asbestos: A Conspiracy 4,500 Years in the Making — Arc 8: The Reckoning
Previous: Episode 39: The Ban That Wasn't Episode 40: Libby, Montana Next: Episode 41: September 11, 2001

About This Series

Asbestos: A Conspiracy 4,500 Years in the Making is a 52-episode documentary podcast tracing the complete history of asbestos from 4700 BCE to the 2024 EPA ban. The series is produced by Danziger & De Llano, LLP, a nationwide mesothelioma law firm with over 30 years of experience and nearly $2 billion recovered for asbestos victims.

Episode 40 is Chapter 5 of Arc 8 ("The Reckoning") and turns from the regulatory gap documented in Episode 39 to a single town poisoned inside it. Libby, Montana is the series' proof that asbestos exposure does not require an occupation: an entire community was exposed through free mine tailings and attic insulation, decades before the 1999 investigation that finally forced a federal response.

The episode closes on the same inversion that runs through Arc 8: the one criminal prosecution in the asbestos story's hundred-year history ended in acquittal, while compensation arrived instead through bankruptcy — paperwork, at a percentage, without a verdict. Episode 41, September 11, 2001, turns to the one exposure site the whole country watched happen live.

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