Newspapers throughout Minnesota have reported that the state Department of Health has identified six more cases of asbestos-caused mesothelioma among the tens of thousands of individuals who worked in Minnesota’s iron mining industry from the 1930s through the 1980s.
The discovery was apparently made as the department was making preparations for a new study. The Health Commissioner came under fire last week when it was discovered that she and her department had withheld information for more than a year pertaining to 35 additional miners who had developed the aggressive form of cancer, which attacks the pleura – the lining of the lungs – and results in death usually within a year of diagnosis.
According to an article in All American Patriots, discovery of the six new cases brings the total number diagnosed with the disease to 58. MDH officials report that they learned about the new cases as they reviewed information about the workers and data from the Minnesota Cancer Surveillance System (MCSS).
The Department of Health reports that the new study, which is currently being organized, will differ greatly from a study conducted in 2003, which identified 17 miners with the disease. This study will look at possible past exposure of workers to taconite dust, as well as potential exposure to commercial asbestos, and will use a “case-control†strategy to compare workers who developed mesothelioma with those who did not, in an effort to determine what aspect of their jobs might have placed them at risk.
