Minnesota Public Radio has a great report on the public meeting held last night by the Minnesota Taconite Workers Lung Health Partnership. The partnership is a program that is examining the extremely high rate of mesothelioma deaths among taconite mine workers in the Iron Range of Minnesota.

One question the five-year program, which received $4.9 million in funding from the Minnesota legislature in April, is trying to sort out is whether taconite dust may factor into an increased risk of mesothelioma. Taconinte miners were exposed to commercial asbestos, which was used in the mines and is the only currently known cause of mesothelioma, as well as taconite dust.

Listen to the MPR report or visit MPR online for a transcript.

Tags: asbestos, mesothelioma, Minnesota

This entry was posted on Friday, December 19th, 2008 at 4:42 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.