Dicklich named co-chair of Minnesota lung health partnership

(May 16, 2008) — Iron Range native and former state senator Ron Dicklich will co-chair the University of Minnesota-led Taconite Workers Lung Health Partnership, a coalition of individuals, organizations, and agencies interested in protecting the health of the state’s taconite mine workers. The senator represented Minnesota’s Fifth Senate District, which includes St. Louis County, from 1981-1992.

The partnership formed last summer after the Iron Range legislative delegation asked the University of Minnesota and its School of Public Health to help lead new research efforts to study increases in cases of mesothelioma, a fatal lung cancer, among men who worked in taconite mining and processing.

Currently Dicklich is the executive director of the Range Association of Municipalities and Schools and works as a lobbyist for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), Ameriprise Financial, and Great River Energy.

“We formed this partnership with the people and organizations of the Iron Range because we believe this research needs to be conducted transparently and well communicated. I am delighted to have Ron Dicklich chairing this partnership with me. He is respected and has such a strong history of commitment to the people in the region,” said John R. Finnegan, Jr., Ph.D., dean of the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. “I look forward to working with Ron and the members of the partnership to get to the bottom of what is causing health problems among Minnesota’s taconite workers.”

Dicklich said it would be an honor to serve as co-chair. “We have been looking for answers to these problems for decades. It now appears we now have the right leadership and the right people around the table to get the job done,” Dicklich said.

The Minnesota Taconite Workers Lung Health Partnership is a group of organizations with an interest in the health of Minnesota's Iron Range taconite workers, their families, and their community. Organizations include the University of Minnesota, mining companies, unions, health care providers, legislators, and local, state, and federal agencies. For more information, visit www.sph.umn.edu/lunghealth.