A former vice president of W. R. Grace & Co. has testified that he helped the company delay a federal health study on the Libby vermiculite mine in Libby Mt.
Robert Locke and five former company officials are charged with endangering the community of Libby by mining asbestos-laced ore which violated the federal law.
The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) issued a health study near the mine in 1980 and 1981. The study would have assessed the public health hazards of asbestos-laced vermiculite mined near Libby. Locke stated that the results would have devastated Grace’s vermiculite business.
Locke said to his supervisors, “be slow, review things extensively and contribute to delay.â€Â He continued later, “This might not be bad policy generally and it is possible that the new administration’s policies will make NIOSH more selective in how scarce staff resources are allocated after Jan. 20, 1981.â€
Locke told jurors that he had supervised earlier failed experiments aimed at reducing the release of asbestos from Grace’s products. So he knew there was a good chance that the NIOSH study would have had a negative effect on Grace’s business. “The asbestos just kept coming out,†he explained.
Most of the government’s evidence presented was in the form of internal documents that Locke took before he was fired in 1998. He said that he stored boxes of papers in his basement fearing he would need them in case criminal action was taken against the company. He has been named an unindicted co-conspirator in the environmental crimes case against the company and could still face federal charges. He testified after turning down immunity offers.
The Libby contamination has been called one of the worst environmental disasters in this country’s history. Thousands of people who lived in and around Libby were exposed to asbestos from the mine.
Asbestos exposure is the only known cause of mesothelioma, a rare but aggressive form of cancer.
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