W.R. Grace tries to define its way out of asbestos poisoning
This important news involving WR Grace and asbestos illustrates why the definition, diagnosis, and treatment of asbestosis and asbestos cancers should be on a clinical basis rather than a geological basis. W.R. Grace is trying to escape its liability for poisoning an entire city by claiming that what is asbestos now was not legally asbestos then.
This type of semantic gamesmanship clearly shows why asbestosis and asbestos cancers are what should define asbestos fibers, not a Congressional definition or legislative fiat. When certain materials cause death under defined clinical conditions, they are asbestos. The industry’s disingenuous claim, that even though the substance kills it belongs (or should belong, or might belong, or once belonged) to a different mineralogical nomenclature and is therefore beyond the reach of regulation, is horrific.
Anything less than a complete ban on asbestos continues to hold open the door for death motivated by greed. The asbestos industry plays to win. So must we.
