Almost everyone agrees that asbestos has killed hundreds in Libby, but Grace lawyers still argue

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/secretingredients/archives/164082.asp

Almost everyone agrees that asbestos has killed hundreds in Libby, but Grace lawyers still argue over name

Until today, I really thought that Judge Donald Molloy's prediction that the W.R. Grace criminal trial would take four to five months to complete was a bit extreme. I based this on the fact that the testimony of two key government witnesses – On-site Coordinator Paul Peronard and Dr. Alan Whitehouse – came and went far more quickly than anyone anticipated.

Looking at a very tired Dr. Aubrey Miller, who completed his third day on the hot seat today and has been ordered back on Monday for another day in tag-team purgatory, I'm wondering whether five months is enough.

I wonder how Miller, who is now medical adviser on bioterrorism to the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration and was the senior medical officer with the EPA's Libby team, compares his grueling 20-hour days as an intern and resident in med school to the day and night sessions he has endured this week on behalf of the government.

I'm heading back to Seattle now and there isn't much room for my laptop in this snug Horizon Air prop plane, so this will be short.

Grace lawyer David Frongillo continued his questioning of Miller and raised issues that had been debated and fought over long before charges were even filed in this case and had even been the subject of contentious pretrial rulings from the judge. Namely, what is asbestos?



The government has said that the vermiculite mine Grace once owned outside Libby was contaminated with asbestos fibers, which miners brought home on their clothes and the mine processing plant spewed over the northwestern Montana town by the ton.

Frongillo took a unique approach to the asbestos question. He asked the judge to permit him to introduce five separate regulations or rules from EPA, OSHA, MSHA and the Consumer Product Safety Commission and one federal law passed by Congress.


FULL story at link.