Civil lawsuits filed in Texas over exposure to silica and asbestos have prompted a federal grand jury to convene in Manhattan to consider possible criminal charges, the New York Times reported Wednesday.
The federal investigation comes after several doctors testified in federal court proceedings in Corpus Christi, Texas that they had diagnosed claimants with an asbestos-related [...]

ABB said Monday that it has reached an agreement to reorganize Combustion Engineering (CE) and ABB Lummus Global to resolve the asbestos claims against both companies.
The amended agreement requires ABB to contribute an additional $232 million to the trust fund that will pay all outstanding asbestos claims. This contribution will be derived from the sale [...]

At least 259 Texans died in 2002 from an asbestos-related disease, according to a new report on asbestos mortality by the Environmental Working Group. More than one third of the deaths in 2002 (103) were in Houston with 44, Beaumont with 34, and Dallas with 25.
The report, “A Slow Death in Texas,” is based on [...]

The U.S. Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency said today that a federal grand jury in the District of Montana has indicted W.R. Grace and seven current and former Grace executives for knowingly endangering residents of Libby, Montana, and concealing information about the health affects of its asbestos mining operations.
W.R. Grace and its [...]

The Supreme Court of Mississippi on Thursday overturned a $22.5 million verdict against 3M Company in an asbestos-related case involving two of its repiratory products, the company said in a press release.
The company said the repirators did not contain asbestos and were not designed for asbestos protection.
The case was originally filed in April 2000 and [...]

Halliburton, the world’s largest oil field services company, said Monday that its DII industries and Kellogg Brown & Root units had emerged from chapter 11 bankruptcy. As part of the settlement, Halliburton has agreed to pay $4.2 billion to settle asbestos claims from more than 400,000 people.
“The asbestos chapter in Halliburton’s history is closed,” Dave [...]

Two men were sentenced last week in U.S. District Court, Syracuse, New York for more than 19 years of imprisonment, following their convictions for crimes related to illegal asbestos removal activities throughout New York State.
Alex Salvagno, 39 years old of Loudon, New York, received 25 years and his father, Raul Salvagno, 71, of Ormond Beach, [...]

Pfizer Inc., the world’s largest drugmaker, said on Saturday that the company and its wholly owned subsidiary, Quigley Company, Inc., have agreed to pay $430 million to resolve all pending and future claims against the companies in which claimants allege personal injury from exposure to Quigley products containing asbestos, silica, or mixed dust.
Quigley was [...]

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Burton Lifland on Wednesday approved a $500 million trust fund to pay asbestos claims against the St. Paul Travelers Companies, Inc. that relate to the bankruptcy of the Johns-Manville Corp.
Travelers, which merged with St. Paul Companies in April, was Johns-Manville’s primary insurer while it made and sold asbestos from the 1940s to [...]

Asbestos deaths among U.S. residents have increased from fewer than 100 in 1968 to nearly 1,500 annually in 2000, with no apparent leveling off of this trend, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday.
Between 1990 and 1999, there were more than 10,000 asbestos-related deaths and the annual asbestos death counts increased by one-third, [...]