As reported on June 26, 2007 by Star Tribune

Minnesota State Health Commissioner Dianne Mandernach appeared before the Senate to answer questions concerning 35 new mesothelioma cancer deaths among miners who had been exposed to iron ore dust, asbestos, and taconite.

Apparently Mandernach withheld this information from the public and even her own staff, concerning the miners for a year, although she did release the data earlier to the mining companies.  The Minnesota Health Department discovered in early 2006 that 35 miners were stricken with mesothelioma between 1997 and 2005.  That was twice as many miner cancer cases as discovered in the previous nine-year period, but Mandernach ordered the data suppressed.

Ordering data to be suppressed is not the way to get to the truth.     

The state health commissioner should work for the people and not the mining companies. 

I cannot imagine how you feel at this moment, being told that you have Mesothelioma,

You have a family and so much still to do, 

All I can say is that we shall fight for you, 

The Defendants will say thru their hired experts that your mesothelioma is idiopathic,

Which is a fancy word for we have no idea how you got it or where it came from — in short it wasn’t us,

Asbestos exposure is especially cruel because of its latency period, which ranges from 10 to 50 years,

Which means a person could have been exposed to asbestos 50 years ago, and develop mesothelioma tomorrow,

We understand no verdict can replace your life, but we shall fight for you,

For the true measure of a society is found in how it treats its injured. 

There is a latency period involved which can vary, but some individuals have developed mesothelioma after washing work clothes of a loved one who worked around asbestos.  This type of exposure is known as household exposure.