The W.R Grace & Co. trial continues to push legal barriers. An 82-page report detailing a medical study assessing the scope of asbestos-related disease and mortality in the town of Libby, Montana has been released.This study is the first of its kind to attribute scores of deaths to non-occupational asbestos exposure. It found that 77 non-miners have died of asbestos disease in Libby since 1998.
Prosecutors have been attempting to show that normal human activity in Libby has continued to disturb the vermiculite that Grace left behind, causing asbestos to be released into the air and continually sickening Libby residents.
Of 227 patients who died, only 41 were excluded as having no diagnosis of asbestos-related disease, no death certificate, or as having had no exposure prior to 1990. Of the 186 people who died, 116 died of asbestos-related disease: seven from mesothelioma, 19 from asbestos-related lung cancer, 11 from other asbestos-related cancer, and 79 from ‘asbestosis.’
Only 39 of those 116 who died were mineworkers. 77 out of the 116, 66 percent of those died were community members and family members of mineworkers.
Illnesses like mesothelioma and asbestosis are generally linked to asbestos exposure.
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