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FILE NAME Newspaper & Magazine Articles NMA DATE 1973 June 24 DOC NMA076 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION NYT - Duluth Stoically Awaits Tests for Cancer Risk in Its Water Duluth Stoically Awaits Tests for Cancer Risk in Its Water By WILLIAM E. FARRELLSpecial to The New York Times New York Times Current file Jun 24 1973 ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times 1851 - 2002 g 36 Duluth Stoically Awaits Tests for Cancer Risk in Its Water 4 By WILLIAM E. FARRELL Special to The New York Times DULUTH Minn June 23he 100,600 residents of this ort on Lake Superior who ave prided themselves on the urity of their drinking water re stoically awaiting the reults of scientific tests to de- ermine whether asbestos fi- ers detected in the water reesnt a risk of cancer Last weck the United tates Environmental Protec lon Agency released a report isclosing that high concen rations of asbestos fibers which have been linked to lung- ancer had been found in Lake uperior The lake is the ource for drinking water for purest fresh water lake in theexposure world - Dr. Charles Carson a geolo gist who is deputy director of the state's environmental agen Edward Schmid assistant the president of Reserve Min ing said It is unfortunate that thishad made public without testing itsand ' ivalidity We know of no reason to theexposure to the mineral in a telephone interview from his New Jersey home Dr. Selikoff said that he had a dozen persons working hour shifts around the clock at asbestosMount Sinai analyzing the tis sue_samples sue_samples and that he hoped to have some findings within weeks Dr. Selikoff and other re- searchers have previously found that asbestos workers thishad high death rates from canbeencer of the lung the stomach itsand the colon In addition the two New York doctors are analyzing data about smoking habits of Duluth residents that were compiled since 1959 by the American Cancer Society Bay | Duluth and the neighboring ommunities of Silver leaver Bay and Two Harbors The Federal agency said While there is obvious con- among cern residents their basic attitude , as summed up andby one elderly taxi driver is lake here was no conclusive no indication to support Let's wait and see what this lence to show that the lake charge that there is any pres doctor comes up with vater was unfit for consump ent or future hazard to drink Robert E. Ball an insurance ion but that prudence dicing dicing water supplies due to tail ates that an alternate source ings of drinking water be found for Getting Tissue Samples ery young children Juice and Soft Drinks Dr. Carson in an interview responded Reserve's attitude As a result parents have is that it's just another darn eenbuying bottled spring wa- trick There are plenty of as- er or using well water or bestos fibers in the water buying quantities of canned and the air The question that uice and soft drinks remains - this as serious The Minnesota Pollution as Selikoff thinks it is If it is Control Agency the state's en ironmental arm attributes the resence of the microscopic isbestos fibers to the dis harge of taconite tailings into it's no paper tiger Dr. Carson was referring to Dr. Irving J. Selikoff the head of the Environmental Sciences Laboratory at Mount Sinai he lake by the Reserve Mining Hospital in New York City an Company of Silver Bay The international expert on environ- allings are grains of ore from mentally caused cancern Dr. which magnetic particles of Selikoff came to Duluth on ron have been extracted Monday night with Dr. E. The company has been em- Cuyler Hammond biostatician rolled with the Federal Gov for the American Cancer So- rnment and with environmen ciety Their mission is to ob alists several years because tain tissue samples of deceased its discharges into the lake Duluth residents taken during t dumps 67,000 tons of tailings autopsies to compare them land . day into Lake Superior the with those of asbestos workers argest and thought to be the land of persons with no known underwriter said All my friends have been drinking it for 20 years and they say What am I going to do with out water A switch to bottle water wouldn't do much good Fountains Shut Off But Mrs. Orval Chatfield a housewife took a harsher saying This bad for the tourists and to think it's pol luting what was once the freshest body of water That Reserve plant - should be done something Community At the Copeland Community Center where 60 income youngsters are enrolled in day care programs run by the county welfare department James Anderson said that the water fountains had been shut off and that the children were drinking water from another county or In response to pleas by area Congressmen the White House has appointed Russell E. Train chairman of the Federal Council on Environmental Quality to coordinate all Federal ef forts to resolve the water crisis Several teams came here to study the water supplies and to seek alternative water supplies for the area In addition the Army Corps of Engineers began to experi- ment with erdlators used de- vices that had been used to purify water for troops in Viet- sophistisophitcaedcasopthisteicadted to see if they were sophisticated enough to delete the tiny asbestos fibers from the lake waters Meantime the waiting goes on Mayor Ben Boo lauding his constituents attitude to date siad There's no reason to be confident Let's get some more facts I think the public has accepted that . THE FRESH AIR FUND 300 W. 43rd Street Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner Further reproduction prohibited without permission