"[W]ord that the U.S. Senate voted for tort deform...
came just a few days after the news that seven
executives of W.R. Grace and Co. were indicted on
criminal charges for knowingly putting their workers
and the public in danger by exposing them to asbestos
ore. Hundreds of miners, their family members and
townsfolk in Libby, Montana, have died, and at least
1,200 more are sick from breathing the air polluted
by the mine....The executives and the company were
indicted on 10 counts of conspiracy, knowing
endangerment, obstruction of justice and wire fraud
....The indictments and the P-I's series were based
on tens of thousands of internal communications among
the top health, marketing and legal managers at Grace
about how to conceal the danger of asbestos in both
the ore from the Libby mine and the products that
were made from it. Their memos include discussion of
how to keep investigators from studying the health of
the miners, how to keep safety warnings off their
products and how to hide the hazards of working with
asbestos ore."
http://www.wvgazette.com/section/Columns/200502157
