Mesothelioma

Paul-based group.

"They've had 20 to 30 years to study it but they didn't," he said.

"It doesn't benefit anyone to have a 'control-city' standard that is not based on health factors."A Health Department official cited a number of factors, including the 1980s decline in the taconite industry, for the long delay in developing a health-based air quality standard.

Most important, said John Linc Stine, director of the department's environmental health division, is that scientists only in the past few years have proposed a model to assess the Iron Range mineral fibers' toxicity based on animal exposure studies and taking into account their varying fiber sizes, shapes and chemical compositions.Lind, of the Lake Superior citizens group, said the state never should have stopped comparative monitoring for the fibers in 1981.

"The fact is that these fibers are harmful and you can call them asbestos or asbestos-like or whatever you want," Lind said.

Foss, head of mining regulation for the state pollution control agency, said the St.

Paul monitoring stopped at a time when Silver Bay's air had lower fiber levels than St.

Paul's.

She said she didn't know...

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