Is killdeer erionite dangerous? two months later, epa still not sure

More than two months ago, at the end of April, state and federal health officials discovered that an asbestos-like mineral that is present on around one hundred miles of road in Dunn County, North Dakota, can be inhaled when airborne. Environmental Protection Agency officials still aren’t sure whether the dust poses a risk to locals, but some residents of the area claim that the attention the erionite is getting is simply a storm in a teacup. The erionite mineral is a residue of volcanic ash. Health officials have been aware since 2006 that the mineral, which may potentially cause cancer, can be found in locally-mined gravel that has been used on public roads and in parking lots. A map published by the State Health Department indicates that erionite deposits can be found in the Killdeer Mountains, the White and Chalky buttes in Slope County, the “little Badlands” southwest of South Heart in Stark County, and in other locations in southwestern North Dakota. The Environmental Protection Agency collected and tested samples of the erionite-containing gravel from Dunn County, and found that it has a “complete exposure pathway,” meaning that particles are of a size that allows them to collect in lung tissue. Dunn County and the State Health Department subsequently recommended that use of the erionite gravel be discontinued. The EPA has also been trying to determine what the effects of long-term exposure to the Dunn County erionite might be, but an EPA On-Scene Coordinator, Joyce Ackerman, pointed out that it’s difficult to determine what the true long-term effects might be because it’s difficult to estimate how much erionite locals have been exposed to. Inhalation of erionite has been linked to lung diseases, including some mesothelioma-like cancers in Turkey, however the substance is not regulated by the EPA. Some of Killdeer’s local residents are nervous about the possible risks of breathing in erionite dust. Rick Rice, a rural mail carrier who frequently drives over the erionite gravel roads, is worried about breathing in the dust and would be happy to undergo EPA tests to help the agency determine whether there are risks present. Rice is 62 and has been delivering mail on the dusty gravel roads for around 35 years. Rick Rice is just one of around fifty locals the EPA wants to carry out some simple tests on to determine if exposure to erionite has caused any health changes. The protocol for the tests is currently under development, and the EPA hopes to be ready to start testing this summer. Some residents, however, aren’t worried at all. Terrald Bang is sixty years old and has been living at the end of a white gravel road for decades. He says he’s lived near the “good old mountain gravel” all his life and he has no lung problems. Art and Viola Lundberg, who live nearby, say the same. Lungberg, at eighty years old, says the EPA’s concerns over the gravel is “a bunch of baloney…I’ve been in this dust all my life…I’m not worried about it.” EPA On-Scene Coordinator Steve Way says it’s too soon to tell whether or not the gravel is a health risk, “We’re trying not to make a big deal out of it, because we don’t know if it is a problem.” (Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News)