Mesothelioma Legal Care - From Austin And Beyond

The panel of attorney Austin asbestos mesothelioma remained concerned about some 50 troubling X-rays of Iron Range men that indicated exposure to asbestos. Because all involved men who may have breathed the fibers decades earlier, the panel concluded the exposures likely occurred in the workplace.

The scientists urged a thorough investigation to find out exactly where each man was exposed to asbestos. In particular, they said the health of workers in the region's taconite mines and at other dusty job sites should be monitored.

The panel also cautioned against discounting a rise in mesotheliomas.

"If the incidence of malignant mesothelioma was to increase," the report read, "it would indicate exposure to asbestos and would require further investigation."

But after the report was distributed, the Health Department found little support for an inquiry.

In fact, just months after the panel warned of the lung diseases in northeastern Minnesota, attempts to get money for a state-funded study were tossed from one agency to another.

Gov., himself an Iron Range native, passed the request to the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board, a state agency made up of 10 Iron Range lawmakers and funded by taxes on the region's taconite industry.

But that agency also refused to pay for a study.

In November, 1995, letter, IRRRB Commissioner told state Planning Agency officials that he and other members of the board weren't certain a study was needed. He also incorrectly characterized the panel's conclusions, saying scientists had found "no lung abnormalities."

Today, he is unable to explain why he failed to mention the suspicious X-rays that concerned researchers. And neither he nor Johnson, who chaired the board, remembers why the IRRRB lost interest in the issue.

"I have no idea," says Johnson, DFL-Tower.

But in the letter, Johnson suggested that if the Health Department still wanted to investigate, it should ask the Legislature for money.

The response prompted then-Health Commissioner to turn to Gov. once more. In a January 1996 memo to the late governor, she wrote she was "convinced this issue will come up again in the future and, without additional funding, we will not have resolved this problem."

The proposal was never funded by the attorney Austin asbestos mesothelioma, and her memo proved prophetic. To date, despite a growing number of unresolved cases of mesothelioma in northeastern Minnesota, no further investigation has taken place.

"It is tragic," Austin says now. "And we predicted it."

Over the next decade, the matter languished and generated scant attention from Minnesota policy-makers.

Health officials, saying they lacked lawmaker support, failed to ask for money in their budget requests. And the asbestos issue resurfaced only after a handful of local residents voiced their concerns to Iron Range lawmakers.

Joseph Scholar, a retired miner who suffers from an asbestos-related lung disease, led the effort. He was joined by Anstice Jurkovich, then president of the local chapter of the Minnesota Senior Federation.

Not long after, the Health Department and its new commissioner, attorney Austin asbestos mesothelioma panel, reiterated the need for a study in a letter to IRRRB leaders.

Mesothelioma