Gannett News Service, Diana Marrero
Published February 16, 2006
Gayla Benefield says asbestos killed both her parents, robbed her of her health and has debilitated most of her immediate family members -- including her husband, her sister, her aunts and uncles.
Benefield, 62, who grew up in Libby, Mont., fears her children and grandchildren also will develop health problems related to asbestos.
All she wants is justice for her family and for her town, which she says was poisoned by the asbestos flung into the air as W.R. Grace mined for vermiculite ore up in the mountains over three decades until the early 1990s.
But Benefield fears a Senate bill that would set up a $140 billion trust fund for people with illnesses linked to asbestos might not help the residents of Libby very much.
"This is going to leave so many people out, but it will clear the court system," she said. "That's all (Congress) wanted to do. The only fairness there is protection for the companies."
She said she worries that medical tests called for in the legislation would exclude a lot of people who are sick. For now, Benefield may not have to worry about the legislation -- it stalled in the Senate this week after fierce opposition.
Supporters say the bill would end decades of asbestos lawsuits that have clogged the courts and driven dozens of companies into bankruptcy.
In addition to lawsuits filed against W.R. Grace, federal prosecutors have charged the company and seven top executives who worked there with conspiracy, wire fraud, obstruction of justice and other violations. A jury trial is set for Sept. 11 in Missoula, Mont.
Opponents argue the measure would leave many victims without compensation and only benefit the nation's largest manufacturers and their insurance companies.
Sens. Max Baucus and Conrad Burns support the legislation, although they have long argued for a provision that would ensure more residents of Libby are compensated.
They say the bill just might be the only recourse some of these residents have left since W.R. Grace filed for bankruptcy in 2001. The company continues to operate and reported $2.6 million in sales last year.
"The extent of asbestos contamination in Libby, the number of people who are sick, who have died from asbestos exposure, is just staggering," Baucus said earlier this week. "Libby residents suffer from all asbestos-related diseases at a rate of 40 to 60 times the national average."
As it stands now, the bill would make it easier for many Libby residents to receive a sum of at least $400,000 -- and many credit Baucus for that.
But many others would not qualify because the medical tests specified in the bill to prove exposure -- and determine compensation -- aren't applicable to those residents.
Before the bill stalled in the Senate, both Burns, a Republican, and Baucus, a Democrat, argued for a third medical test for Libby residents that would measure the amount of oxygen delivered to the lungs -- often the only test that could indicate medical problems for some people who have developed asbestos-related health problems.
"For some of my colleagues, this debate is about technical details of a very complicated bill," Burns said. "For people in Libby, of course, it is life or death."
But others say Libby residents actually fare better under the bill than most other Americans who are sick because of asbestos.
"The Libby situation is the one place where the bill does not completely favor the company that caused the problem," said Richard Wiles, of the Environmental Working Group, which has been tracking the legislation. Although Wiles says Montana's senators are right to ask for the additional medical test for Libby residents, he thinks other Americans should not have to jump through so many hoops to also receive compensation.
Some lawmakers also questioned the need to single out the town of Libby in the bill. Burns and Baucus say those lawmakers simply don't understand the devastating impact asbestos has had on the town. In a town of just 2,600, about 200 people have died from asbestos-related illnesses and 1,500 are being treated.
Attorneys who represent sick Libby residents place little faith in the legislation in its latest form.
"There are people on oxygen who would not qualify under the current bill," said Jon Heberling, an attorney in Kalispell, Mont., who has been fighting W.R. Grace in the courts for years.
Mark Kovacich, an attorney in Great Falls, Mont., who also represents asbestos victims sums it up this way: "It's nothing more than special legislation to protect special interest."
But Benefield holds out hope lawmakers may yet agree to include that additional medical test.
"If that doesn't go through, the bill is useless to us," she said.
