A scientific conference will look at the risks of contracting various forms of cancer from a natural, asbestoslike mineral found in rock formations and volcanic ash following groundbreaking research at the University of Hawaii’s Cancer Center.

The Oct. 12 conference in Raleigh, N.C., will bring together the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Environmental Protection Agency and Dr. Michele Carbone, director of the UH Cancer Center, among others, to discuss how to deal with erionite, a substance found in 12 western states, though not in Hawaii.

In a study published Monday, Carbone’s team in Honolulu joined cancer researchers at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia in describing a genetic mutation that makes people susceptible to eye melanoma and mesothelioma, a disease most commonly associated with asbestos exposure that kills 3,000 Americans each year.

Carbone’s research found that patients with eye melanoma and mesothelioma also carried a genetic mutation that puts them at higher risk when exposed to erionite, which is used to build roads and roofs and to insulate homes across the country.

The U.S. Geological Survey said erionite is found in North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon and California.

"The question is, ‘What can we do about it?’" Carbone said. "It’s a difficult issue to fix it. It costs money. And there are different agencies with different rules. Somebody needs to take the lead and coordinate the various agencies involved because we have a tremendous opportunity here for cancer prevention and monitoring populations at risk."

There is no evidence that erionite exists in Hawaii despite the archipelago’s volcanic origins.

The state Health Department does not plan to test for erionite in the islands, spokeswoman Janice Okubo said Monday, and neither will the EPA. Erionite is not one of the agency’s regulated substances and is "not something we monitor," EPA spokesman Dean Higuchi said.

But Carbone plans to bring mineral experts from the University of Iowa and University of Chicago to Hawaii by the end of the year to take samples.

"It’s not a priority because Hawaii is not one of the states indicated at this time," he said.

Associate Professor Julia Hammer of UH’s geology and geophysics department said it’s unlikely that erionite formed in Hawaii because of the way volcanoes erupt here.

"I don’t think local residents have to worry about this," she said. "We don’t have the ingredients associated with the formation of this mineral."

Erionite comes out of rocks that are rich in silica, Hammer said, and "our basalt rock is poor in silica."

Volcanoes that produce erionite typically spew lava full of tiny particles of ash that settle into thick blankets that interact with rain and geothermal water to eventually form long, skinny fibers that can attach to human lungs and lead to mesothelioma, Hammer said.

"We do not have the kind of environment likely to produce much of this at all," she said.