Yang finishes testimony
With a sigh of relief and a smile, former Grace chemist Dr. Julie Yang finished her testimony in court Thursday afternoon.
“No more questions, this is great! I’m going home,” Yang said to laughter in the courtroom.
Under both cross-examination and redirect, Yang spent the latter half of the afternoon explaining the delicacy and expertise required to count and identify asbestos fibers, as well as her pivitol role in the Grace hamster study.
During her tenure as an employee at Grace, one of Yang’s tasks was to identify tremolite fibers within samples of vermiculite from the company’s Libby, Mont. mine. Defense attorney Carolyn Kubota questioned Yang on the difficulties involved with identifying such fibers. She explained that tremolite fibers and the actual vermiculite were very similar and that a shard of vermiculite on edge could confuse someone into thinking it was a fiber.
“OSHA has very strict standards… It takes a lot of time. It takes a lot of experience,” Yang said, adding that “things that aren’t tremolite could look like tremolite under a microscope.”
It was this experience that was lacking when Grace set up a testing laboratory in the Libby, Mont. mine, according to Yang. In order to combat this, Yang began to analyze the Libby findings for a second time at her Cambridge, Mass. laboratory.
“They sent material to us every month. We’d evaluate it and then send it back. Back and forth, we got a pretty good agreement,” Yang said.
However, original counts from the Libby lab were often twice as high as the counts found in the Cambridge lab, according to Yang. The problem wasn’t fixed until Yang sent her best counter to Libby to train employees in 1985.
After the cross-examination came a short redirect from prosecutor Kris McLean. In it, McLean asked Yang why she never published her findings from the hamster study.
“Grace didn’t want it published. I turned it over to the management; it’s not my call. They decided not to publish it,” Yang said.
Yang felt she had to push Grace to do the test in the first place, explaining that the company was wary of the costs and of the possibility of a less-than-favorable outcome.
“Whether it was positive or negative, I think you want the results so you know the effect of Grace materials versus regular vermiculite,” Yang said.
McLean finished his redirect by asking Yang about the vermiculite contents of “stoner rock,” heavier mine material found within the Libby expansion plant.
“Oh, they have a lot!” Yang said smiling.
Court was ajourned at 5:09 p.m. and is expected to continue at 9:00 Monday morning.
-Nate Hegyi (posted 6:36 p.m.)
Posted: March 19th, 2009 under News.
Tags: Hegyi, Yang
Comments
Comment from Don Wilkins
Time March 20, 2009 at 6:02 am
I think the most damaging testimony that is going to nail the conspiracy theory is when the government brings forth all the worker chest x-rays and the Grace doctor reports them as having “no change from previous x-rays. Some , like my dad, received several of these. Then, that same doctor would send a report to Grace indicating “this individual is developing asbestosis.” When they, if the government has them, bring these two reports together for the same individual, for the same x-ray, on the same date, their duck will finally become a duck…GAME OVER
Comment from Mike Crill Missoula,Mt
Time March 21, 2009 at 10:02 pm
Hi Don and Terry. When the mine shut down in 1990 and the miners were diagnosed by the question: Do you smoke.Do you not smoke. Seemed all the miners had something wrong with them at that time.(They did)But this WR Grace Dr. diagnosed those who said they did not smoke, with asbestosis.Those who smoked were diagnosed with their health problems caused by smoking.Not asbestos… When my Uncle Bill said he smoked,he was not diagnosed and after 17 years of working for WR Grace I knew something was wrong. Plus at this time I had proof that I could blow this WR Grace Dr. out of the water as the expert WR Grace Dr because I knew for a fact that some of those whose said they did not smoke in truth, did smoke… So I obtained my Uncle Bills WR Grace/St.Johns medical records from 1982 to 1988. What I found when I put the results together it showed where my Uncle Bill was breathing less and less every year.And also showed that he had scarring and nodules in his lungs.BUT!!! The results my Uncle Bill received each years, gave him a good bill of health. HE NEVER was told he was dying. And NOW, I have this WR Grace Dr. telling my Uncle he has nothing asbestos related. Keep in mind, this was 1990 when I first became involved with WR Grace and Libby, because of my Uncle. Then in 1992, we all notice workers with new motor homes and cars and of course, we wondered what was happening specially those of us who left the mine with nothing. In 1992, I contacted the Lawyer,Tom Biaz who represented the asbestos diagnosed workers who had just got money/WITH a gag order and I asked if there was anything, he could do to help my Uncle since I just learned that he has asbestos too but never told even when many knew he was dying from asbestos. I was turned away. And so began my fight to get a proper diagnoses for My Uncle Bill. Now, I don’t know how many dying miners smoked and died with nothing but their boots on but each one who die, suffered and die saved WR Grace millions of dollars.Please read that again.Many many died just with their boots.And still are.So from 1990 to 2006, my Uncle Bill received NOTHING for his pain and suffering from his asbestos he was told he didn’t have.15 years of this WR Grace Dr. repeating the same diagnoses.So in 2006, the statue of Limitations was just 6 months away. The WR Grace Lawsuit/Bankruptcy and Medical plan. I then accompanied my Uncle Bill to see this so called Dr. who has lied all these years HOPING my Uncle Bill would die without diagnoses.While in the office, this Dr. told my Uncle that his tests showed little change and he got up to leave and I said to him… Hey doc, I would like a diagnoses for my Uncle before we leave today and his exact words were” OH,I SUPPOSE I COULD DO THAT”. Had I not stopped my Uncle at that moment he would of killed that Dr. right there on the spot.I probably would of helped him but not the time and place.And we walked out of that office with a proper diagnoses of asbestosis. The next day,NEW life was in my Uncle after all these years sick and dying with no nothing.We went and got my Uncle a lawyer to sue WR Grace and got on the WR Grace Medical plan to help him and the rest of his time was spent, dreaming…dreaming as we all do as to what we will do with what comes from the lawsuit, that is killing us. We talked about fishing in Alaska, Grand kids collage and family taken care of. You know, all the things you could never give your kids on disability pay. I do want to tell you that those days were some of the happiest days for my Uncle, even thou he knew he was on his way out, being properly diagnosed changed his life.And the lives of those who love him as we all saw his new reason for living. Well, my Uncle Bill got to dream that dream, for 6 months, as he died later. His kids will see something.Not justice. Not enough money.Not even a sorry for killing my Uncle and all his children/family who also shared the air he brought home and did not know,They did.And so did WR Grace Dr. Alan Whitehouse. note: in 1990 so called Dr.Whitehouse was not licensed as a B reader to diagnose any one let alone the miners in 1990.But WR Grace used him to screw hundreds. And Whitehouse CONTINUES to misdiagnose people. Also came out in trial that in 1963,Whitehouse was the only lung Dr in the North West and so he was used by most/all Corporations and people lungs/exposures.How many people have suffered and died with nothing because of Whitehouse? We know how many never got exposed if you ask WR Grace. But they don’t matter and Dr Whitehouse does… Thank you Terry Trent for the “testimony”.I think this duck is about to be cooked.Cooked Gooooood!!! Libby…Town of Asbestos Test Rats…I know, not funny.So true so tru…
Comment from Terry Trent
Time March 19, 2009 at 9:21 pm
Dr. Yang did not know that 95% of the fibers she was dealing with weren’t Tremolite, wern’t “asbestos” at all. They were Winchite and Richtorite. And we still do not know today if these materials are mesotheliomagenic or not. Don’t know if they are carcinogenic or not. We do know the tiny fraction of material she was working with, was Tremolite, and that tiny little bit, a smaller amount than has ever been regulated, smaller by far, we know for certain is highly mesotheliomagenic.
TTrent