Mesothelioma study in Iron Range prompts three miners to share their stories
The University of Minnesota is studying Iron Range taconite miners and their spouses to determine any possible connection between the mines and the prevalence of lung disease in the community. Three of these miners have shared their stories with the press.
Sam Rickes spent over 35 years working at the Eveleth Taconite plant as a machinist. He worked in dusty conditions in nearly every corner of the mine. Both he and his wife Judy are taking part in the university study, and their son has also been invited to take part because he’d worked part-time at the mine one summer. Sam was excited about being tested, though he felt healthy enough at the age of 67. He said that he hopes that if there is something in the ore that is making workers sick, then this study should make the mines a better, safer place to work.
Joe Scholar was a supervisor in the ore dressing, crushing and milling buildings. Now 86 years old, he was diagnosed with asbestosis after he collapsed in 1989; the casing around one of his lungs had hardened. Scholar recalled that the respirators they used in the 1940s and 1950s had just one filter and that they made it hot and hard to breathe. Many workers didn’t bother to wear them, and the rule was rarely enforced. He worried, though, about what inhaling that dust would do to him and his fellow workers. Scholar spent years trying to get someone to study the problem, but was ignored by union officials who worried the mines would be shut down, until finally he got his wish. But he also feels that the current study does not go far enough. He wants to test the water in the mine pits that serve as municipal water supplies. He wants to look at the particles dumped in the tailing basins around Iron Range, and he feels the current testing should focus on those who worked in the dustiest parts of the mine.
Dave Trach worked for Erie Mining Co. for 38 years. He served as a crane operator, a union official and a board member of the national Steelworkers Organization of Active Retirees. Trach was also diagnosed with asbestosis. He said that he remembers watching workers dip their bare hands into bags of powdered material that contained asbestos, though none of them knew it contained the toxic substance at the time. Trach hopes that the study will help find some answers so that people who go into the mines won’t have to worry anymore.
For the full story, go to Duluth News Tribune.
