W.r. grace bankruptcy court sets bar date for zonolite claims

The Delaware Bankruptcy Court which has been overseeing the W.R. Grace & Company case has set a bar date for claims related to Zonolite attic insulation which are to be filed in the W.R Grace case. In order to preserve their case against the company, anyone who wishes to make a claim relating to Zonolite attic insulation must file that claim on or before the bar date, which has been set at October 31, 2008. For the purpose of the bar date, Zonolite claims are property-related claims. These may include the costs of asbestos abatement, and any reduction in property value or other economic loss which results from the presence of W.R. Grace-manufactured Zonolite in a home. Zonolite is a type of loose-fill, non-roll vermiculite insulation produced and sold by W.R. Grace & Co. The company mined the vermiculite from a mine located in Libby, Montana. The mine, the vermiculite, and all the insulation sold under the brand name Zonolite is contaminated with tremolite asbestos. The contamination of the mine where the substance was obtained is so severe that the entire town of Libby has been declared an EPA superfund site for almost a decade, with hundreds of millions spent on clean-up. More than 1,000 residents of Libby have been diagnosed with asbestos-related diseases as a consequence of working in or living near the mine. At the end of this year, the criminal trial against W.R. Grace and several of its top executives finally get under way. The consequences of the production and use of contaminated vermiculite are even more far-reaching than appears at first glance. Many more people than those residing in Libby may eventually be affected, as Zonolite is present in millions of American homes. Zonolite was sold from the 1920s up until the 1980s under several brand names, including Attic Fill, Attic Plus, Cashway Attic Insulation, Econofil, House Fill, Wickes Attic Insulation, Zonolite Insulating Fill, Sears Micro Fill, Quiselle Insulating Fill, Mica Pellets Attic Insulation, Unifil, and Ward’s Mineral Fill. Zonolite insulation may appear as a glittery granular substance. Granules may be silvery, gold, or brown in color, and their color may have darkened after being present in an attic for several years. Even homes with newer insulation may still contain Zonolite, as the substance may be found underneath newer rolled insulation. For more information about filing claims, interested parties can visit www.graceclaims.com, call 1-877-465-4817, or write to Claims Processing Agent, W. R. Grace & Co. Bankruptcy, P.O. Box 1620, Faribault, MN 55021-1620. (Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News)