Turkish cancer villages warn of epidemic to come along North Dakota’s roads

July 26, 2011 – ISTANBUL – In Dunn County, North Dakota, the roads are paved with a unique danger. Over 300 miles of them are covered with gravel taken from the local North Killdeer Mountains. This rock is rich in a mineral called erionite that behaves not unlike asbestos. Both cause cancer, but according to animal studies, erionite is anywhere from 200 to 800 times more effective at it than its more famous counterpart. Dunn County’s erionite gravel releases small brittle fibres into the air when lightly disturbed. They’re released by wheels driving overhead, the footfalls of pedestrians, or even the gentle scrapes of brooms and rakes. Once airborne, the fibres can find their way into the lungs of passers-by, accumulating in the surrounding cavity (the pleura). There, they cause chronic inflammation and, over time, a type of cancer called mesothelioma. To date, no one in Dunn County has been diagnosed with mesothelioma as a result of erionite, but it is only a matter of time. The first such cases in North America have already been reported. And to see what the future holds, you only have to look 6,000 miles away at the Cappadocia region of Turkey. The villages in this area have been using erionite-rich rock to build their homes for years, and they have suffered for it with an epidemic of mesothelioma. Since the 1970s, this rare type of cancer has been responsible for almost half of all the deaths in three villages – Tuzkoy, Karain and Sarihidir. For comparison, in 2008, the disease only accounted for 0.4% of deaths in the UK. Michele Carbone from the University of Hawaii has been studying the Turkish “cancer villages” for 15 years. His attention turned to North Dakota when Ed Murphy, a state geologist, alerted him to the presence of erionite in the local mountains. Carbone soon learned that Dunn County has been fashioning gravel out of the erionite-containing rock since the 1980s. His team found more than 300 miles of the stuff, including “32 miles of school bus routes, parking lots, playgrounds, and baseball fields.” Carbone toured around Dunn County, measuring the concentrations of erionite fibres in the air. He found higher-than-usual concentrations on roadsides, in school buses and in cars. Sweeping, raking, cycling, driving and walking all released fibres in to the air. These levels were generally lower than those in the most harshly affected Turkish villages, but that’s not especially reassuring. In one instance, erionite levels along the road near a school bus stop exceeded those of equivalent sites in Turkey. Carbone also collected samples of indoor air from a road maintenance garage and a social services office. These buildings had levels of erionite that are comparable to those in Boyali and Karlik, Turkish villages where 6 to 7 percent of people die of mesothelioma. –Discover