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St. Paul (AP) ― Gov. Tim Pawlenty backed up Health Commissioner Dianne Mandernach on Wednesday, even as Iron Range lawmakers called for her resignation over the yearlong delay in the release of data on nearly three dozen cancer cases among miners.

The data came out in March, but the delay wasn't reported until this week.

Iron Range legislators are incensed, and two of them -- Rep. Tom Rukavina and Sen. David Tomassoni -- held a news conference outside Pawlenty's office to call for her resignation. They were joined by Sen. John Marty, who heads a Senate health policy committee.

Health Department research discovered 35 cases of a rare lung cancer among miners in March 2006 -- double the number of mesothelioma cases previously identified. On Wednesday, the agency said a cancer surveillance system had flagged six more cases, bringing the total to 58.

Union leaders and Iron Range politicians said the public, including 4,000 current miners, should have been told sooner about the new findings. Iron Rangers have long worried about health problems related to the mining industry, and male residents of northeastern Minnesota have come down with mesothelioma at unusually high rates since the late 1980s.

"If it had been known a year ago we could have got a jump start on this," said Rep. Tom Rukavina, DFL-Virginia, one of nine lawmakers to push for Mandernach's resignation. "I mean, these are people's lives on the line, and to delay it for a year makes no sense. I don't understand."

Mandernach issued a statement apologizing for the tardy release of the data.

"I hope that the people of Minnesota will accept my apology," she said. "I will do everything I can to maintain the department's credibility, and above all, to preserve the excellent reputation that this agency has earned."

In a letter, Pawlenty told the Iron Range lawmakers he, too, was disappointed.

"The issue was not well handled," he said.

However, the Republican governor's letter also outlined his decision not to fire her.

"Commissioner Mandernach has apologized for the mistake," it reads. "In light of her long and positive record of public health service both at the Department of Health and at Mercy Hospital and Health Care Center, I do not believe this issue rises to the level of termination."

Pawlenty appointed Mandernach to her $108,400-a-year position in 2003. Before that, she headed a health center in Moose Lake.

Gubernatorial spokesman Brian McClung said Pawlenty's chief of staff, Matt Kramer, relayed the concerns about the delayed data release to Mandernach in a phone call, but the governor hasn't spoken with her directly.

Marty has asked Mandernach to testify about the cancer data before his Senate Health, Housing and Family Security Committee. Both Marty and McClung said they expect Mandernach to appear at a yet-to-be-scheduled hearing, probably next Tuesday.

Mandernach initially said the department needed time to plan more studies. In her statement, she said she wanted to release the information along with a research plan "so that we could assure the mining community we were doing everything possible to respond to the mesothelioma deaths we had identified."

Four years ago, a much-disputed Health Department study linked the mesothelioma cases known at the time to exposure to commercial asbestos in mining equipment. But miners and others have been pushing for more study of taconite dust produced by mining and processing.

The department's new mesothelioma study will probe exposure to taconite dust as well as commercial asbestos.

Identifying the source of the cancer is critical so workers can be screened and precautions taken, said Tomassoni, DFL-Chisholm.

"It's very important to us and the people of the Iron Range, the workers who are working up there, to find out what the cause is of this disease," he said.

Rukavina questioned whether Mandernach or someone above her made the call to sit on the new cancer data. McClung said the governor's office didn't know the Health Department waited to release the information. He said Mandernach mentioned mesothelioma among a number of issues the department was working on last fall, but didn't give specifics.

Pawlenty's staff was briefed on the 35 new cases in mid-February, and McClung said they directed the department to make the information public. That didn't happen until late March.

(© 2007 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)