Minnesota Legislature Sends New Bill to Sort Out Iron Range Lung Cancer

The Minnesota state legislature recently sent a bill to the governor that allocates money for cancer research efforts. Over the past several years, Iron Range residents have been hit with an epidemic of a particularly rare form of lung cancer.

Following a unanimous vote in the state Senate authorizing the funds, the state House also voted in favor of the action (121-1). As a result, $4.9 million will be granted towards exhaustive research that should get to the bottom of the Iron Range cancer problem.

The money, which will come out of a special insurance fund that is overseen by the state Department of Commerce, will help researchers figure out why several miners have recently been stricken with mesothelioma, a cancer that is largely related to asbestos exposure.

Totally incurable and largely untreatable, mesothelioma is responsible for thousands of deaths. While new drugs are being developed to treat the disease, few have actually made it onto the American marketplace.

Those involved in the study at the University of Minnesota will peruse all of the death records of the miners involved, as well as conduct screenings of the worker's families. Current and former employees will be part of the wide reaching study, which will hopefully give those associated with Iron Range the information that, thus far, has remained out of reach.

Additionally, reviews of the environment will also be conducted. All told, the research is slated to take up to five years to complete. Tim Pawlenty, governor of Minnesota, has given his support to the plan.

A 28-year-old woman who grew up around the Iron Range was quoted as saying that she "just attended on of my best friend's funerals this weekend, who died of synovial sarcoma. It's an extremely rare cancer, and I am blown away with how many people have it on the Iron Range-especially my age and younger."

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