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Mesothelioma News | 2000
Forum Addresses Concerns Over Asbestos Reports
As Kathy Jorgensen stood before Minneapolis city, Hennepin County and Minnesota health officials Thursday night recalling pleasant memories of her childhood in northeast Minneapolis, her thoughts also brought painful feelings. She remembered playing with her siblings, especially her youngest brother, Harris, near the former W.R. Grace Co.'s vermiculite processing plant. He died of lung cancer years later. She thinks it might have resulted from exposure to asbestos-tainted vermiculite.
"We played in it, laid in it," she said during an asbestos community forum at the Minneapolis Armory. "I didn't know we were laying in death."
"What are we waiting for? Others have been affected. This has been going on long enough. Let's do something about it," she said.
More than 50 people gathered at the meeting arranged by City Council members Joe Biernat and Paul Ostrow and County Commissioner Mark Stenglein. They joined state health and pollution-control officials to address neighbors' concerns about recent media reports citing asbestos problems at the Grace Co. and the now-defunct B.F. Nelson Co. plant. The reports said that asbestos from the two northeast plants was linked to the deaths of 21 workers and three neighborhood residents.
"What can we do as a community?" Jorgensen asked the panel.
The concerned should avoid smoking, future asbestos exposures and get respiratory and pulmonary screenings, said Dr. David Parker, an occupational physician at the state Department of Health.
"The word 'screen' means life-saving," said Alan Bender, chief epidemiologist for the department's chronic disease unit. He urged members of the audience to talk to their legislators to demand more research on asbestos exposure.
"We have to make sure our voices are heard about this issue," longtime northeast resident Fran Guminga said. "We've got to stop the finger-pointing and get our regulatory bodies working on this together."
