Judge Says Asbestos Risk “Negligible

December 19, 2006 - The Daily InterLake Newspaper (MT) reports that a federal bankruptcy court judge ruled last Friday that the asbestos found in Zonolite attic insulation, once manufactured by W.R Grace and Co. of Libby, Montana, does not pose an “unreasonable risk of harm.”

The judge denied a motion on a partial summary judgment on asbestos claims, issuing a statement which said that the chances of dying due to exposure to Zonolite were “less than that of dying in a bicycle accident, by drowning or from food poisoning.”

“Claimants failed to provide any epidemiological evidence or any risk assessment,” Judge Judith Fitzgerald concluded, though she noted there “is no dispute regarding the fact that Zonolite attic insulation is contaminated with asbestos and can release asbestos fibers when disturbed.”

W.R. Grace and Company, which filed for bankruptcy protection in 2001, has been blamed for more than 200 deaths in the town of Libby, where its plant was located for more than 40 years.  The company faces in excess of 125,000 personal-injury lawsuits at this time. 

The judge, however, pointed out studies released by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, which acknowledge that scientific studies have thus far failed to show a relationship between Zonolite and health risks.

“The evidence submitted indicates that outside the attic, when disturbed, the risk of exposure is negligible,” Fitzgerald wrote. “In the attic, even on disturbance, fiber levels did not exceed accepted standards employed in the workplace.”

News regarding the ruling in Grace’s favor pushed shares of W.R. Grace stock upward Friday, The Associated Press said.