Health commissioner to appear at hearing
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Minnesota Health Commissioner Dianne Mandernach will explain to legislators next week why her department withheld data on a rare form of cancer for more than a year.
Mandernach is scheduled to testify Tuesday during a joint hearing of the House and Senate health committees. She apologized last week for delaying the release of information on about 35 iron ore miners who died from the asbestos-related cancer known as mesothelioma. Sen. John Marty, DFL-Roseville and chairman of the Senate Health, Housing and Family Security committee, has asked Mandernach to resign.
Marty described the health department's actions as alarming.
Looking through the documents that the department has sent over, it looks like they spent a lot more time worrying about how it's going to look for them when we release this information, not what the impact is going to be on the miners.
Marty also wants to know why state health officials sat on information about a chemical formerly made by 3M that's been found in drinking water in several east metro communities.
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