Criminal charges against executives of the mining company W.R. Grace were announced in 2005, with government attorneys calling the case "one of the most significant environmental criminal indictments in U.S. history." The charges contended that the executives spent years concealing information about the dangers of the asbestos products Grace mined near Libby, Montana. Now the government's case is in jeopardy because a lower-court judge banned the government's use of critical evidence, including internal Grace memos, expert witnesses, and asbestos study results.

Grace employees mined vermiculite ore for nearly 30 years, from about 1963 to 1990. The ore, contaminated with asbestos, was made into lawn and garden products and housing insulation, used in 15–35 million homes and businesses in the United States. The government has identified the vermiculite fibers as the cause of hundreds of deaths and thousands of cases of life-threatening illness.

The U.S. Attorney's Office has stated that Grace and its officials knew since at least the mid-1970s of the devastating health effects of exposure to asbestos in its products, including vermiculite, and that they deliberately concealed the information.

U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy's several decisions banning the government's evidence were appealed by the U.S. Attorney, and government lawyers argued Monday before the appellate court in Seattle that unless those lower-court decisions are overturned, it will not be possible to properly prosecute Grace and its defendant executives. They also requested that the court treat its appeal as soon as possible — a government witness and a Grace defendant have already died since the original trial was postponed. Each man died of cancer; one of mesothelioma, a fast-killing cancer attributed to asbestos exposure.

(Source: Seattle Post Intelligencer)

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