Sometimes the Government works very well, Prolonged exposure to erionite, would have caused mesothelioma 30 -50 years later – Michele Carbone
Sometimes the Government works very well!
Today I got a call from the ND State environmental scientist Russell Martin to follow up on our discovery in 2011 (Carbone et al., PNAS 2011). What happened since?
Briefly, in 2011 we discovered > 300 miles of dirt-roads in North Dakota that had been paved with gravel containing erionite. Erionite is a mineral fiber present in some areas in the natural environment that is more potent than asbestos in causing mesothelioma. We -my team in collaboration with Aubrey Miller, Steve Way and Charles Partridge, the EPA team-, measured in the air of the school buses transiting on those ND roads very high concentrations of erionite. Prolonged exposure to erionite, would have caused mesothelioma 30 -50 years later in some of those ND kids and in those who frequently drove on those roads. Following the publication of our study and meetings we had with ND LT-Governor and other ND State authorities, the ND State repaved the roads with erionite free gravel (the reddish looking erionite in the photo below, -compare to the erionite containing gravel that is gray), in order to prevent further exposure and mesothelioma.
We wondered what happened next, did they follow up or they forgot about it and now they are using gravel-containing erionite? Are the roads in ND safe?
Today I got a call from Russell Martin a ND State environmental scientist to follow up on our discovery in 2011. I learned that since then, all gravel used on ND roads has to be tested and approved by the ND State, to be sure that is erionite-free. The reason they use gravel to pave roads in Dunn County is that there are thousands of Oil companies trucks traveling on those roads daily -fracking is very active- and asphalt will not hold the weight of so many trucks. We discussed that was important to increase awareness to erionite to discourage anyone to dig and use erionite-containing gravel on private properties. Education is critical when dealing with a toxic mineral that will harm people only decades after they have been exposed.
This is a good example, of academic researchers-my team supported by NCI, AACR funding and by private donations- working together with the EPA scientists and with ND State scientists and authorities to do some good. Well spent tax-payer money! Effective preventive translational research, although unusual!
Probably many lives that would have been lost to mesothelioma were saved by the measures implemented by the ND Dakota State. This is also a good example of team work and collaboration across different people, agencies, Institutions, etc. to fix something before it becomes a problem. I am glad that my team and I were able to contribute to this!