The Department of Justice has said that the settlement of $250 million between W.R. Grace and the federal government is the highest asbestos settlement in history. The settlement was announced on March 11, 2008.

The money has been allocated to reimburse the government for the costs incurred during the process of investigating and cleaning up the asbestos contamination of the mining operations in Libby, Montana.

Since May 2000, the Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency have been working remove soil and materials in and around Libby that are contaminated with asbestos. Under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, the federal government filed a lawsuit against W.R. Grace in March 2001 to try to recover the expenses of asbestos removal.

The 2001 lawsuit also named a W.R. Grace subsidiary, Kootenai Development Corporation, as a defendant because they own three of the properties contaminated with asbestos.

W.R. Grace both owned and operated the vermiculite mine that was contaminated with asbestos in Libby from 1963 to 1990. Asbestos is the only known cause of mesothelioma, a rare and fatal form of lung cancer.

Mesothelioma attorneys are currently working on cases involving exposure to asbestos.

          There is an article circulating on the Internet that alleges a cure for mesothelioma has been found. The article is humorously entitled “Mesothelioma Cured- Lawyers Panic.” The fake news story was written as a satire, and is entirely fictitious. Though www.thespoof.com goes to pains to make sure that the reader knows that its story is made-up, others have taken the story out of context and spread it around the web through emails and online bulletins, perhaps as a joke. 

          Whether or not you find the article funny or in good taste, mesothelioma has yet to be cured. It remains a horrible, debilitating, fatal disease that affects too many innocent people. To protect yourself from being an emotional victim of an undocumented Internet rumor, take a minute to put some key words from that email or bulletin into a search engine such as www.google.com. You should be able to tell fairly quickly if the story you are researching is true.

On February 29, 2008, the United States Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) issued new limits on asbestos exposure. The new standard limits miners’ exposure to asbestos to two asbestos fibers per cubic centimeter.

The two fibers per cubic centimeter limit is already in place with the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). The previous MSHA standard allowed asbestos levels to be twenty times higher than the new limit.

The new MSHA limit applies to metal mines, nonmetal mines, surface coal mines and surface areas of underground coal mines.

Due to the inarguable evidence of asbestos being linked to severe and fatal illnesses like mesothelioma, the U.S. Department of Labor recommended MSHA needed to revise its standards.

Despite the new regulation, there is worry that standards are still not strict enough to protect the safety of miners and their families.

If you or a loved one has suffered a serious or fatal illness due to asbestos exposure, please contact the asbestos attorneys of Cappolino Dodd Krebs LLP at 1-888-MESO-FIRM (1-888-637-6347). An experienced asbestos lawyer will be able to evaluate if you are eligible to seek compensation.