Cancer cases revive old health concerns on Iron Range

MOUNTAIN IRON, Minn. -- Tim Carlson is a third-generation mine worker on northern Minnesota's Iron Range, with more than three decades on the job, and as of his last checkup he's healthy.

But Carlson's father died of an undiagnosed respiratory illness, and an uncle died of cancer. The 54-year-old Carlson needs more than two hands to count all the family, friends and former co-workers who've died of cancer or respiratory diseases over the years.

Recently, the state Health Department uncovered three dozen new cases of mesothelioma, a rare form of lung cancer, among Iron Range mine workers -- the latest findings to bolster a perception among locals that they suffer from unusually high rates of cancer and other chronic health problems. And it's renewing a question that's nagged for years: Does the taconite that is the region's economic lifeblood also make people sick?

"For years I watched people I know get sick, and no one knew why," said Carlson, a maintenance engineer at U.S. Steel's Minntac plant in Mountain Iron, a town that bills itself as "Taconite Capital of the World." (Taconite is a low-grade iron ore used to make steel.)

The Health Department had recorded 17 mesothelioma deaths among miners since 1998. But last month, the department reported that new analysis had raised the number to 52, all men. Since 1988, the rate of mesothelioma in men in the region was more than twice the expected rate, though the Health Department said some of that was probably due to a factory that made asbestos ceiling tiles.

Mesothelioma typically lies dormant in a victim's lungs for years or decades, striking late in life. That's made it more difficult for scientists to link mine work and the disease, and also left many miners wondering if a mesothelioma diagnosis is in their future.

Mesothelioma is associated with asbestos exposure, and a controversial 2003 state Health Department study said the likeliest cause of the miners' mesothelioma was exposure to commercial asbestos in mine equipment. That conclusion drew a lot of fire on the Iron Range, where suspicion runs deep about taconite dust, the waste material kicked up in taconite mining and processing. The rock has been shown to contain asbestos-like fibers, and many mine veterans believe it's the culprit behind both mesothelioma and the prevalence of other lung afflictions.

"The time will come soon when I'll have to go on oxygen," said Colleen Dahmen, a laborer for 15 years at the now-closed LTV Steel plant in Hoyt Lakes.

Dahmen, 67, suffers from asbestosis, an inflammation of the lungs from breathing asbestos that's non-cancerous but can be a precursor to mesothelioma. She also has asthma and had to have her spleen removed.

Like scores of Iron Rangers in both previous and later generations, Dahmen pursued mine work because it paid well.

"I had two boys I wanted to put through college and oh, it seemed just wonderful," Dahmen said, describing her pursuit of a mine job in the early 1970s. "Little did I know then how it was going to turn out."

Dahmen and other workers now retired or on disability recall how taconite dust was thick in the air at the mines and plants where they worked.

"Everything was coated with that stuff," said Bill Stodola, a mechanic at LTV Steel for 32 years. "If I was working on an overhead crane, I had to scuff it with my boot to make sure I had sure footing."

Stodola now has chronic asthma and Parkinson's Disease. He said he and colleagues never wore protective equipment. "No one told us we had to worry," he said.

Carlson, who is also a safety chairman for the local steelworkers union, said most taconite facilities now require workers to wear respirators if air contamination reaches certain levels. But he said in his observation, the rules are rarely enforced that hard -- and that taconite dust often is still thick at many mines and plants.

"I think more workers take it seriously now, but you know the young guys, it's hot and it's uncomfortable and it's easy to take it off and forget about it," said Carlson, who said he always wears a respirator on the job and thinks all the taconite operations should require the same. Carlson also gets yearly chest X-rays and checks of his lung capacity.

U.S. Steel, which owns the Minntac mine where Carlson works, declined comment for this story. Cleveland-Cliffs Inc., owner of several Iron Range facilities, announced recently it would undertake its own study of whether taconite dust is making its workers sick.

"It's something we need to know and it's something the public needs to know," Cleveland-Cliffs spokesman Dana Byrne said. "It's a question we'd like to put to bed once and for all."

In releasing the latest mesothelioma numbers among mine veterans, the state Health Department announced it would produce a followup study to its controversial 2003 effort. It will attempt to identify where workers with mesothelioma may have been exposed to asbestos, and will consider taconite dust as a possibility.

"We're hoping to be able to say more about the exposure to taconite dust, if it's having an impact on the health of these workers," said Mary Manning, director of health promotion and chronic disease at the Department of Health.

As the steel industry has declined, union jobs that pay $20 to $25 an hour are scarcer and more sought-after than ever. Many former workers watching their own health decline have also watched their own kids take jobs at the mine -- against their warnings.

"Our kids heard two things growing up -- graduate from college, and don't work for the mines," said Kay Freeman, whose husband John worked 40 years at LTV Steel. He now suffers from asbestosis and Parkinson's.

"I don't think our young people are thinking any differently than we did," said Dahmen, whose 30-year-old daughter has a mine job.

"We tell her all the time, please, go somewhere else, find something else. She says, I can't get money like this anywhere else."