Health Screenings for Iron Range Miners to Begin This Spring

This spring Iron Range miners and their spouses will be eligible to receive health screenings as part of a five-year study to determine whether there is a relationship between taconite dust and mesothelioma.

To date there have been 59 confirmed cases of mesothelioma among Iron Range miners and researchers from the University of Minnesota's School of Public Health are trying to determine whether it was caused from taconite fibers and what can be done to prevent future cases.

Researchers will conduct around 2,000 screenings at the Virginia Regional Medical Center. Participants in the study will be selected at random and each person will receive a heart and lung exam, lung function tests, a chest X-ray and blood tests. Notifications will be sent out over the next few months to those who have been selected.

It was known that 17 miners developed mesothelioma during an 8-year period between 1988 and 1996. However, calls for a large-scale investigation erupted in 2007 after it was revealed the state knew of 35 additional cases.

In April the state legislature approved a five-year $4.9 million study to be conducted by the University of Minnesota that will attempt to find out why miners developed mesothelioma at high rates.

Researchers have begun collecting information on worker's employment history and possible ways they could have been exposed to asbestos. In addition scientists have been gathering and analyzing air samples from locations across the Iron Range in an attempt to determine whether there are high levels of naturally occurring asbestos in the air.

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