An article in the Minnesota Star Tribune has exposed the fact that the Minnesota Department of Health suppressed information pertaining to research about deadly mesothelioma among workers in the state’s taconite mines. The information in question was kept quiet for more than a year, the article points out, despite the fact that a government scientist urged the health department to release the information because of the health implications connected with it.

According to the article, the department discovered in March 2006 that mesothelioma, an asbestos-caused cancer, had stricken 35 more taconite miners than the 17 previously known. All 52 of the miners have died.

Records obtained by the newspaper show that the information was scheduled to be released last fall but the state health commissioner, Dianne Mandernach, decided to withhold the new information until a “plan” was in place. These same records also show that the department feared that “public disclosure of the findings would create controversy.”

Mandernach said that releasing the findings without having a plan for further studies could “excite and cause tremendous concern before you have all of your ducks in a row.” Public health experts disagree.
“Whether or not they had a plan in place is neither here nor there,” said Dr. Ian Greaves, an associate professor of environmental health at the University of Minnesota who is an expert in lung diseases.
“They’re a public agency that serves the public, and I think it’s overreaching to think they should take an attitude that they know best. … This sounds very paternalistic in some ways.”
According to the article, the Health Department has regularly released public health research. Officials could not cite another case in which findings were withheld for a year.
The department did, however, quickly release a report which stated that no cancer clusters were found in Washington and Dakota counties, where groundwater pollution is a growing concern. The findings were made public shortly after the work was done.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 18th, 2007 at 2:13 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.