A former chemist for W.R. Grace has testified that he conducted a 1976 study that tested the effects of asbestos-laced vermiculite on hamsters. The hamsters developed mesothelioma and eventually developed pleural thickening of the lungs, which suffocated them and caused their deaths.

Heyman C. Duecker worked as a chemist for W. R. Grace & Co. for more than twenty years. Mr. Duecker testified on Tuesday that this testing was mandated by a corporate directive. The corporation ordered the study to better understand the health risks the asbestos-laced vermiculite might pose to their miners in Libby.

The testing was part of a corporate directive to study the hazards of asbestos in order to better understand its potential health risks to miners in Libby. Results were tabulated every six months, and the chemist was instructed to keep the results private.

The results were to be made available at six-month intervals and were to be kept private, Duecker said.

The animals were exposed to Libby vermiculite, which is different from other kinds of asbestos in that it contains a dangerous strain of asbestos called tremolite.

The hamster study conducted by Duecker also compared the effects of common asbestos to the effects of Libby asbestos. “The study would provide us with the relative carcinogenicity of Libby asbestos as compared with commercial asbestos,” Duecker said.

Attorney Kevin Cassidy, a lawyer for the prosecution, argued that this study was proof that top officials for W.R. Grace were aware that there was a difference between Libby’s asbestos and other common forms of asbestos.

The W.R. Grace trial is expected to last three months.

Countless Libby residents – well over 1,000, according to a doctor that testified at the trial about two weeks ago – have been diagnosed with asbestos diseases, including asbestosis and mesothelioma cancer.

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