Thousands Injured, 275 Dead, WR Grace Not Guilty

[Jefferson23]

Talking With Andrea Peacock About the Poisoning of Libby, Montana

July 19, 2010

By RUSSELL MOKHIBER

A vermiculite mine in Libby, Montana.

Supplying the world with materials for insulation and potting soil.

One problem.

The vermiculite has asbestos.

And the asbestos has poisoned the town.

Killed 275 of its residents.

And sickened thousands of others.

For years, the feds didn’t do anything about it.

Neither did the state of Montana.

Finally in 2004 – under heavy pressure from the community – the company and seven executives were indicted.

For violating federal environmental laws.

Charges against four of the executives were tossed.

And last year, a jury came back with not guilty verdicts against the company and remaining three executives.

Montana journalist Andrea Peacock tells the moving story in her new book – Wasting Libby: The True Story of How The WR Grace Corporation Left a Montana Town to Die – And Got Away With It (CounterPunch / AK Press, 2010).

Actor Jeff Bridges says the book “tells the story of a small town in Montana that was contaminated then discarded.”

remainer in full: http://www.counterpunch.org/

[BrklynLiberal]

1. Love Canal, Silkwood, Bhapol, and one and on. the corporations come in, make $$, kill and poison

people and then walk away unscathed.

The stories are legion...and justice is rare.

Is there even one case where the executives of a company who committed this sort of crime has been made to pay with a jail term?

[LiberalLoner]

2. My second cousins were born and raised in Libby. I have friends who lived and worked in Libby.

It's a heartbreaking story.

[LiberalLoner]

3. Oh, and I played in that same vermiculite as a kid. It was all around on vacant lots,

etc. The stuff was very very dusty - and we all breathed in that dust. The dust contained asbestos of the most dangerous type. It was all around because everyone in Montana used that stuff for insulation. None of us knew there was any danger in it.

[Jefferson23]

5. You and your family members/friends ok?

[LiberalLoner]

9. So far, although when docs listen to my lungs, they ask me if I was a smoker -

I tell them "no" and they look like they don't believe me....

[Jefferson23]

10. All the best to you and yours LiberalLoner. n/t

[montanacowboy]

4. Lived there for 20 odd years

my daughter & grandkids still live there, I could write my own book

[Jefferson23]

6. From what I've been reading, I'm sure you could..,horrendous

decision rendered in this case. No justice, just incredible.

[pokercat999]

11. You expect justice, in America?...lol, hahahaha, good joke. nt

[DemReadingDU]

7. How many other towns and cities?

How many others that we don't know about that have been contaminated?

[havocmom]

8. The product was sent far and wide.

While that isn't as dangerous and easy to show as the mine and population of Libby, the damage is widespread/

Lots of other sites with lots of other problems, and lots of pols making sure corporations will get off.

People are just natural resources or obstacles to the corporatists.