Post by rew on Apr 7, 2008 6:54:13 GMT -6
When the ground you walk on could be unsafe
AP
KILDEER, ND - The sounds of children playing baseball has been silenced at one ball field in this western North Dakota city. Officials fear the ground itself is simply too unsafe.
The ballpark, one of two in this town of about 700 people, is covered with crushed containing erionite, a mineral mined from the nearby Kildeer Mountains.
The rock, used for decades on everything from gravel roads to flower beds, contains fibers that can collect in the lungs of people who breathe it, health officials say.
Steve Way, a federal Environmental Protection Agency coordinator, said studies have shown that erionite causes cancer in lab rats, though the mineral is not regulated by his agency.
Erionite is found in at least a dozen states in the West, but Way said he did not know of another area in the US that uses it "at the same magnitude" as Dunn County.
The mineral also has been found in gravel mines in Stark and Slope counties in southwestern North Dakota. Officials there have also been asked not to use the gravel.
"We definitely should be looking at this for health concerns," Way told a group of about 60 residents in a meeting Tuesday night in Kildeer.
Kildeer mayor Dan Dolchek said the ballpark was shuttered as a precaution and the county voluntarily quit using the gravel from the Kildeer Mountains until studies are completed. But many residents are more worried about road maintenance than the risk of cancer from the ground.