Mining's Clean Bill Of Health

In terms of identifying problems that need remedies, desmoplastic mesothelioma is not related to public relations. It is related to public health."

Near the center of the Iron Range, just outside Hibbing, a place dubbed the "Grand Canyon of the North" bears testament to the impact and influence of mining.

The Hull Rust Pit - 3 miles long, 2 miles wide and some 535 feet deep - once was considered the world's largest open-pit iron ore mine. All told, some 1.4 billion tons of rock and soil have been taken from it since 1895.

They no longer work most of the mine. But on the north end, Hibbing Taconite workers still extract the low-grade ore called taconite. They do so - 24 hours a day, 365 days a year - under the safest of conditions, their supervisors say.

Along the dirt roads leading from the pits to factories where the ore is refined, huge trucks spray water to keep dust from kicking up. In the dustiest areas of the factories, workers must wear respirators. Ventilation systems are designed to keep the air fresh in the plants, and officials from the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration say air monitoring has not shown dangerous levels of asbestos at any Iron Range mines.

"Mining companies have spent millions on dust control," says safety director at the nearby U.S. Steel mine in Mountain Iron. "In my years here, we've never had an occupational illness that would be lung-related."

But because it is the region's largest employer, because its workers breathe at least some dusty air daily, and because asbestos-like fibers have been found in Iron Range soil, the mining industry remains a suspect among those looking to explain the high rate of mesothelioma.

Indeed, no other Iron Range industry is responsible for creating so many jobs - 20,000 directly and indirectly statewide, the Iron Mining Association of Minnesota estimates - or contributing as much to the state economy. And some contend that no other industry in the region boasts as much political clout; single-handedly, through some $20 million in taconite taxes that go to the IRRRB, the mines provide the agency with the means to finance millions of dollars of projects each year.

Few dispute that a study fingering the mines as the source of the cancers could prove devastating to the industry, the IRRRB and the regional economy.

"I don't think most of our legislators from the Iron Range are inclined to do anything to upset the mining companies," says the Senior Federation activist. "They're afraid if they go after the plants about air pollution either in or out of the plant that they're going to reduce jobs."

A Macalester College professor who specializes in labor history, says such trade-offs may be inherent in regions that rely on one industry. The result of that dependency, he says, is a "powerful economic blackmail" that often colors decision-making.

"In a regional economy where these are the major provider of jobs, people are over a barrel," Rachleff argues. "The problem is that corporate interests control the political process."

Mining officials, the IRRRB's Gustafson and lawmakers scoff at those claims. Industry health experts say the asbestos-like fibers found in parts of the Iron Range have not been shown to be dangerous, and they point to at least three industry-sponsored studies that have given taconite mining a clean bill of health.

And lawmakers dismiss the notion that desmoplastic mesothelioma are pawns of the mines.

Mesothelioma