AT LAST, A DECISION ABOUT FUNDING THE IRON RANGE STUDIES
I have followed this story with growing frustration: that the studies are urgently needed is incontrovertible; that the studies will be expensive is inevitable; where the money was to come from appeared to be indeterminate.
I'm sure I wasn't the only person to be frustrated by this, so I unashamedly cut and past the following news story from the Duluth News Tribune. Let's hope that everybody can now get on with the urgent work at hand!
A rare cancer may be ravaging Northeastern Minnesota, but Northeastern Minnesota alone shouldn’t have to foot the bill to get to the bottom of it. Anyone in the state could be struck with mesothelioma, after all, which is believed to be caused by asbestos.
Late last week, lawmakers and Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty reached a compromise to tap a statewide fund for $4.9 million to pay for a four-phase study into the disease and its causes. Earlier in the month, Rep. Tom Rukavina, DFL-Virginia, suggested using a statewide workers compensation fund for the study, an idea that immediately prompted one lawmaker to suggest an Iron Range fund would be a more appropriate choice and Pawlenty to threaten a veto. Pawlenty said withdrawing from the workers compensation fund could cost businesses.
In the end, a statewide fund appropriately will be used to cover the costs of the investigation by the University of Minnesota. The funding source is an insurance fund administered by the state Department of Commerce. Available to companies that can’t get workers compensation policies, the fund has a surplus of $41 million.
The good news is the mesothelioma study will move forward. The better news will come when the cause of this terrible cancer is found and a death toll that stands now at 58 ceases to gain any new victims.