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FairWarning.org
By Myron Levin, FairWarning.org
Federal health officials are calling for protective measures at job sites where workers may be exposed to erionite, a cancer-causing mineral similar to asbestos that is found in rock and soil in at least a dozen western states.
An advisory published Tuesdayby the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health recommended a series of steps to prevent employee exposure to eronite fibers at sites such as gravel quarries and road projects. The NIOSH alert noted that erionite was responsible for "remarkably high" rates of mesothelioma, a lethal form of cancer that devastated several Turkish villages where erionite was concentrated in rock and soil.
Erionite fibers pose an inhalation hazard similar to asbestos, but available research suggests erionite is more dangerous.
As reported in October by FairWarning and msnbc.com, authorities have long known that erionite is widespread in the West but haven’t investigated the potential risks, apparently believing there was little chance of human exposure.
Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries
Erionite in rock formations in Rome, Oregon.
As a result, amid an expansion of roads, pipelines, and power lines in remote areas, erionite remains unregulated, and federal agencies until now have failed to alert land-use officials, developers and residents so they might take precautions.
About 30 officials and scientists from federal health and environmental agencies last month held a day-long erionite workshop in North Carolina. "At a minimum, we can begin to start to educate the public and policymakers," said Dr. Aubrey Miller, a senior medical advisor at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, who chaired the meeting. "I certainly don’t want to count bodies later."
The steps recommended Tuesday by NIOSH, though purely voluntary, are a first attempt to address potential occupational risks.
"From the evidence at hand …it’s prudent and it’s reasonable to approach controlling exposures as one would control asbestos,"said NIOSH spokesman Fred Blosser.
Erionite, a member of the zeolite family of minerals, is formed from volcanic ash that has been weathered by water. Like asbestos, it is harmless until it is disturbed, and the microscopic, needle-like fibers waft into the air.
Until the late 1970s, when the mesothelioma epidemic was first reported in Turkey, asbestos was thought to be the only cause of the rare cancer. But erionite was found to be the culprit. In the hardest-hit villages, where 40 percent to 50 percent of all deaths were caused by mesothelioma, erionite was abundant in soil and rock, and was used to build homes.
Animal studies showed erionite to be 100 to 800 times more carcinogenic than asbestos and, according to a scientific paper, "almost certainly the most toxic naturally occurring fibrous mineral known."
The NIOSH alert acknowledged the paucity of data on erionite risks in the U.S. According to co-authors David Weissman, director of the agency’s division of respiratory disease studies, and Max Kiefer, director the NIOSH’s western states office, "little is known about exposures currently experienced by U.S. workers." But it said there is some evidence of health effects among road construction workers exposed to erionite-containing gravel or soil.
It cited studies in North Dakota. In 2005, it was revealed that erionite-laden gravel mined in the western part of the state had been used to cover hundreds of miles of unpaved roads.
Mesothelioma develops decades after initial exposure, and no proof has emerged of high rates of the disease in North Dakota. However, air sampling along the gravel roadways and in vehicles, including inside school buses, revealed erionite level similar to those in some stricken Turkish villages. And a preliminary health study found that two road maintenance workers had mild lung scarring consistent with breathing mineral fibers.
In the absence of clear risk data and regulations, however, use of erionite-containing gravel has continued in the state. The North Dakota Department of Transportation has banned its use in state road projects, but some local governments and private companies rely on it still.
Complicating the picture, the state is in the midst of one of the greatest oil booms in U.S. history, with a huge spike in truck traffic tearing up unpaved roads and increasing the need for maintenance. To use only erionite-free gravel to patch the roads would mean hauling from 40 miles away, which is “cost prohibitive,” Reinhard Hauck, the auditor and treasurer of Dunn County, N.D., told FairWarning. Local officials are "behind the 8 ball constantly trying to figure out how to maintain the infrastructure we have."
Scott Radig, director of waste management for the state Department of Health, said the agency has provided advice to energy companies and construction contractors on controlling dust and avoiding gravel with erionite content. But Radig said such steps are purely voluntary, and he doesn’t know how many companies comply.
The NIOSH advisory listed more than a dozen measures to control potential hazards, including employee training and determining if erionite-containing material is present before beginning work.
Other steps included wetting soil and rock to reduce dust; using respirators and other protective equipment; showering and changing clothes before leaving work; and ensuring work clothes and boots are left at work to prevent hazardous fibers from being brought home.
FairWarning is a nonprofit, online investigative news organization focused on public health and safety issues.
Leave a Comment:
nah. air pollution doesn't cause asthma, it actually cures it according to Rand Paul, so that must mean that asbestos cures cancer and this new stuff is not even a threat.
What article are you commenting on? This article has nothing to do with air pollution. It is talking about a naturally created mineral called "erionite" that causes cancer.
he's speaking of the denial of those on the right that all these health problems are just "made up" and nothing man does, or nature provides, is causing any issues...it's all in the crazy liberals head.
just like mesothelioma caused by erionite...just more liberals trying to destory the oil boom in north dakota.
Right, and we don't need the EPA and it's nasty old regulations according to Rand and Poppa Ron. Americans can fend for themselves against polluting corporations. We saw how well that worked before the EPA, for those of us old enough to remember. We all know that today's corporations always put public safety and environmental protection ahead of profit.
@Bob-1255448, has no idea what the definition of air pollution is and how it causes cancer in the lungs. What an idjet! That must be drinking the stuff. Right?
With the big dust storms we get in Arizona, we've probably been breathing it all along!
Great, now we'll have new commercials by attorneys seeking people harmed by erionite.
@Mark VanGelder--I too am old enough to remember Love Canal and the Hooker Chemical Co., I can remember when there was no EPA. The republicans, unable to kill the EPA, will, as with Bush, put lobbyists for the polluting industries in charge of the EPA to make sure NO profit damaging regulations get enforced. You remember Bush, a failed brain.
...mesothelioma cancer may not appear until 20 to 50 years (or more) after exposure. Diagnosing mesothelioma is often difficult, because the symptoms are similar to those of a number of other conditions. Talk about a silent killer. It took actor Steve McQueen 40 years after serving in the military.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesothelioma
Wow, didn't take long to turn this into a waste of a discussion.
Obviously if this stuff causes cancer, we need to implement appropriate safety measures to deal with the threat. Hopefully now that it is more well known, regulations will be enacted to limit exposure.
Isn't it amazing I said the last two comments without blaming a political party? If only more people could do such a thing.
Lack of work, $$$, etc is a CANCER, So What !!!.........
Yes Richard - it is nice when people can discuss the problem without bringing politics into the arena, however that is the new American way - "Blame the other guy".
They should first study populations living in areas where erionite is common to figure out what is the REAL risk to humans from that mineral. But that is too much common sense to ask the government to do. Instead they merely extrapolate extremal cases to justify yet another scare tactic.
there was much more pollution when i was young than now,when visiting older people i got to experience the fragrance of keymack stoves in the kitchen and wood or oil burning stoves for heat in the living rooms.lead paint and cows or goat milk from a family farm that didn`t even have hot water.never ever heard of asthma among my classmates.
This really complicates an already copmplicated situation. Industry had known that asbestos caused lung cancer since the 1860's. So much so that two major British firms with mines in Canada had forbidden all management to go to the mines in Canada or to meet face-to-face with anyone who had physically been in the mines. In accord with the ethics of the day (and the fact that mesothelioma is slow to develop) workers were simply not told of the risk.
But it had been considered pretty much that 100% of mesothelioma cases were caused by asbestos exposures as small as just walking through a brake shop once or just having asbestos insulation in your house. This assumption was made because if you sliced a mesothelioma tumor thinly, you would always find a tiny crystal of asbestos in the tumor. But never in other types of lung cancer. There are actually huge settlement funds for mesothelioma victims that were set up by the asbestos industry.
But finding a secondary cause of mesothelioma is very complicating. Companies will be much less willing to settle with mesothelioma victims if they can pose the doubt that the cancer might have been caused by a naturally-occurring mineral. While the civil standard is "by the preponderance of evidence" instead of "to a reasonable certainty." This will make cases much more difficult to prove, a situation not envisioned when the settlement process was set up.
Don't go outside and live in a plastic bubble....
Commonly known as dust, it blows in the wind. Short fiber asbestos is found in the rocks around here (a western state) and is released by erosion. This is already recognized by geologists who have done studies here, and has been known as far back as the '50s. So now we have a new term for short fiber asbestos, erionite.
No matter where you live, there are hazards. While mining creates a tremendous release of the stuff into the area around the mining and transport activities, get used to the idea that it already is in the air if you live here and short of living a bubble boy lifestyle, you are not going to escape exposure. Mother Nature does a pretty good job of disturbing and spreading it in her own way.
think you hit the problem not the cure.
in about 20 years we are going to be reading about the massive amounts of mesothelioma from the oil boom in North Dakota. id like to get them all on record TODAY saying they dont care, and wont seek to sue the federal, state or local govts (the ones who are making the decisions to use these products)....and i'd like to have all the current workers (either laying the gravel, or traversing these roads as part of their jobs) to be informed and sign consent waivers indicating they understand the risks but simply dont care.
You know most of them are saying "this is all bs, just more scare tactics" and in 20 years as they are dying of mesothelioma will try to pretend like they had no clue, and IF THEY HAD KNOWN...blah blah
Let people poison themselves for a quick buck, so long as they are fully aware of the choices they are making...
....and they are worried about people smoking cigarettes in public parks and streets.......goes to show you all the misplaced attention in this country....
Smoking cigarettes is bad? (cough cough),,, Yeah, but you've got to love the lobby money
your right! then we have aircraft spraying heavy metals and chemicals all over us, and they want you to worry about the guy with a cigarette!
Smoking is actually synergistic with exposure to asbestos. A smoker is 400% more likely to get mesothelioma than a non-smoker exposed at the same level. I think it is likely this new fiber has the same relationship.
Gee, thanks. That's "mighty white" of our government to keep us informed about the potential perils of carcinogens here in the continental U.S. I was just wondering why then, didn't they tell us 40 some years ago, about the potential harmfulness of the carcinogens in the defoliant "Agent Orange" that was being sprayed all over S.E Asia in an effort to expose enemy positions? God bless America.
This is one good example why we need the EPA. Yes, we need to re-visit the regulations and perhaps some need to be revised or streamlined but this department plays an important role in protecting our citizens. The only reason the GOP/Tea Party (Koch brothers) want to do away with this department is strictly profit. They do not want to be bothered with having to follow regulations and in their sick minds they want to squeeze out as much profit as possible even at the risk of having their employees' health. It was President Nixon that created the EPA. In the past we have had GOP President that to some point cared about the public not like know whereby the GOP want to do everything to protect their financial cohorts so they can continue to receive more and more money. GREED, GREED, GREED.
Can you imagine the amount of it in the water too? OMG! If you look carefully at water in the USA with high levels of arsenic in it and then overlay the highest rates of cancer by % to population, you will see a disturbing trend.
Vitreous fibers cause lung cancer. Unless you are a fish you should not have much of a problem. Of couse they are easily filtered out of water too.
Um.. arsenic has been shown to be acutely toxic, but the carcinogenicity is disputed, as there have been no direct correlations between arsenic exposure and cancer. It is suspected to be a "tumor promoter" however, conflicting studies have been produced, proving no conclusive results.
Organo-arsenates are frequently encountered in the human diet, which we have no problem dealing with, as they are in minute quantities. Inorganic arsenic is acutely toxic, but much more rarely encountered.
This seems more like scare tactics than science. I bet if you look at the areas with the "highest levels of arsenic" in the US, you'll find they are also industrial centers, where the air quality is lower, and carcinogens are more prevalent.
how about disease causing fracking? sickly corn syrup in all our foods? black lungs from dirty coal? the list is long on all the contaminants in our world that we can get rid of? yes, we can get rid of them and still live HEALTHIER lives.
Scientifically unsupported alarmist tripe! People live twice as long now as they did 100 yrs ago.
Corn syrup is sugar, All That Is. It's a mixture of fructose and glucose, with an excess of the former (thus the "high fructose" designation.)
The "HFCS" hysteria that is going around is completely unfounded. A can of Coke has 39 grams of sugar per 12 oz. If you were to replace the HFCS with cane sugar, guess what? We'd still observe obesity and issues? Why? Because it's ~160 calories from a beverage, and many people drink 4-5 cans per day. That's about a third of the total caloric intake a person should have per day, which is ridiculous.
The high fructose corn syrup you find in sodas and such is about the same ratio as what is found in honey. The two biggest differences between honey and HFCS is 1) Honey is made by bees and 2) Honey contains a few other trace compounds such as proteins that give it extra flavor and color. Nobody would think twice about drinking soda with honey in it.
Additionally, apples naturally have about twice as much fructose as they do glucose, so that would be like HFCS 200% or something.
The fructose and glucose in HFCS are linked together. In apples they aren't. The body can deal with separate glucose and fructose molecules. The linked ones do not activate the proper chemical pathways for the proper utilization of sugars. Honey has the same problem but if you replaced all of the HFCS in your diet with honey, you'd be eating four or five quarts a week. not a very real scenario.
Clark,
Fructose and glucose linked together in a disaccharide is called sucrose, also known as table sugar. In HFCS they are not a disaccharide but free-floating molecules. This why you can get HFCS in different percentages, it is the ratio of glucose to fructose. Sucrose, because it is a disaccharide, is always 50-50 glucose to fructose. Apples are about 57% free fructose, 23% free glucose, and 20% sucrose in terms of total sugar content.
Fructose is metabolized differently in the body than glucose. It has been linked to obesity and high cholesterol. But you get the same effect when you consume sucrose as when you consume high fructose corn syrup. HFCS isn't special in any way.
@Pragmatic: You can always tell the people with scientific backgrounds from the ones without...
It is futile to argue scientific fact with people that clearly refuse to acknowledge it.
I completely **love** this paragraph:
"Complicating the picture, the state is in the midst of one of the greatest oil booms in U.S. history, with a huge spike in truck traffic tearing up unpaved roads and increasing the need for maintenance. To use only erionite-free gravel to patch the roads would mean hauling from 40 miles away, which is “cost prohibitive,” Reinhard Hauck, the auditor and treasurer of Dunn County, N.D., told FairWarning. Local officials are "behind the 8 ball constantly trying to figure out how to maintain the infrastructure we have."
Make the rich even richer, give the poor folks a bit of the money to ease their lives while ending their lives. What a place we have in America!
Would it be possible to relocate the nations' capital including Congress and the White House to
Nevada where the concentration of this mineral seems to be heaviest? Is probably the only way
to ever get term limits and relief from the pack of thieves.
That would be awesome! The politicians of this great nation are the worst pollutants anyway! Both democrats and republicans alike...
It is never prudent to breathe air with high concentrations of dust composed of anything. Most of the people who got mesothelioma worked in environments where the asbestos concentration in the air obscured vision. Trucks going down the road is unlikely to be much of a risk unless you are in a position to breathe in the dust significantly. There is no need for this to slow down oil exploration. Particulate respirators are inexpensive and easlily obtained.
There are lots of fibrous minerals that are asbestos-like all over the States. For most people they pose little to no risk. Susceptible individuals may have a higher risk, but working with high levels of this stuff all the time can definitely be a problem.
Yes, by all means, government must protect us from soil and rock. Really the best thing that could happen is if all amerikans were provided safe, sterile, housing in careefully regulated housing divisions (relocation camps)at government expense of course for the safety of the people.
The theys and the thems during the Agent Orange period aren't there anymore.
The theys and the thems during the Agent Orange period aren't there anymore.
The theys and the thems during the Agent Orange period aren't there anymore.
If you're a Republican, there's no reason to worry about this or even pursue it. Keep government off our backs...I'm sure private companies will warn us of the dangers of this mineral when they drill, dig,frack or lay pipe in the vicinity of homes and businesses...right? ah right?
Oh great, ya'll know where this leads: More job killing regulation by the evil government! Stop business regulation and allow the benevolent corporations to manage the environment and health & safety of its workers.
This is another attempt by the FEDS to get their hands on oil rich lands and regulate how much we can produce so that we don't interrupt that Middle East pipe line that so many of congress are indebted to.
The "feds" may not have been aware that it was there or even cared, but those states have ALWAYS KNOWN and I'm betting that the regulation from the states themselves are better than any FED regulations.
Less than .00001% of the population dies from mesothelioma each year and the EPA makes it a big deal.
Yet more than 9% die of old age each year and the EPA just ignores them.
Typical bureaucrats.
I sure would hate to see innocent YOUNG kids, who are required to ride the school buses in North Dakota, be exposed to such a potentially harmful substance because it is cheaper to use the hazardous gravel closer to home than use safer substances. If this problem doesn't show up until years later, the older adult politicians and buisness' are making some dangerous choices, that will potentially harm people that have no other options other than to use the gravel roads that are in place, or maintained with gravel adults know contains Erionite.
who cares about this stuff? not the GOP - why? because it'll kill off enough of us and the GOP will be happy - people won't make it to retirement age - so the social security and medicare problems solves itself