The University of Arizona says it has received almost $15 million to help ease health threats posed by products from mining.
Arsenic-rich dust and fungal spores are types of tailings or waste left over from mining.
The money from the National Institutes of Health is for UA's Superfund Research Center, which focuses on mining towns and tribal reservations in the borderlands.
The Superfund Research Center, also known as the "The DUST Center: Hazardous Dust in Drylands- Exposure, Health Impacts, and Mitigation," was established in 1989 and has been continuously funded by the NIH since 1997.
Its work focuses on mining towns and Native Nations across the Arizona-Sonora border region, where residents face chronic inhalation of arsenic-rich dust from mine tailings — waste left over from mining operations.
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And that has a broad impact — from tourism to drought to allergies.
