"Asbestos Means Death for S. Africa Blacks" by Carol Morello, summarized from USA Today, February 10, 1999

South Africa has the highest rate of mesothelioma diagnosis in the world. Due to the latency period between the time than an individual is exposed and the time the disease manifests itself, the death rate is not expected to peak for another ten to twenty years. The zone of danger includes the actual asbestos miners as well as those who live near the mines, especially those who live downwind from the huge open pits.

When industrialized nations such as the United States and others gained a sane appreciation for the hazards of exposure to asbestos, the 134 mines and 400 open asbestos dumps began to close and be abandoned. Asbestos waste and contamination of the environment was so prevalent in South Africa that even the rain was contaminated with the deadly fiber. The rain would also erode the pavement and playgrounds, causing the release of asbestos fiber into the waterways.

The overwhelming majority of miners in South Africa are black. They were not advised of the dangers of asbestos until recently. When a Black miner would become sick, it was usually mis-diagnosed or inaccurately recorded as tuberculosis. Doctors now believe that many of the deaths of workers and their family members were probably caused by asbestos exposure. Because of the systematic exclusion of blacks from South African society, the records and data studied by epidemiologists to measure the incidence of disease among the black miners is of little to no help. The mining companies did not make a habit of accurately recording the cause of death of their employees. Autopsies of black asbestos miners were shunned.

As the demand for asbestos declined in the 1970's and 1980's, many of the mines that were internationally were abandoned. Now the government is faced with the thankless and costly task of cleaning up the mess. The clean up effort is made more difficult because many of the mines operated uncharted dumps and mines. The Department of Minerals and Energy has estimated that it could take ten to fifteen years to complete the clean up project, assuming they don't find any more cites and they have enough financial resources to adequately reduce the risks. To date the government has not been able to trace a single responsible corporate owner. Twenty years ago the asbestos mining companies in S. Africa were operating at full capacity and they employed thousands.

Many of the asbestos mines are located in the Northern Province. Small towns and villages sprang up around the mines. The local towns used the crushed asbestos residue for roads, playgrounds and tennis courts. Children would play in the asbestos dumps. Mafefe is in the Northern Province and it is comprised of a chain of thirty small villages. Asbestos was the way of life for the people of the region. The citizens of the area used asbestos for everything from horticulture to making soccer fields.

Many doctors in South Africa knew about the hazards of asbestos when many of th mines began operation in the 1950s. Those who spoke up were silenced by asbestos mine owners and by a complicit and racist government which considered blacks as expendable.

In 1956, Chris Wagner, a pathologist studying asbestos, was unable to find a publisher in South Africa. Wagner documented thirty cases of mesothelioma in the Northern Cape of South Africa. His research identified tumors in miners, road workers and water well drillers from the region. The asbestos industry called Wagner "a nut". They worried that his study would ruin their dirty business when Wagner finally published his article in the British Journal of Industrial Medicine in 1961.

The asbestos mine doctors were instructed to remain silent for many years or else they would be blackballed. One such doctor who kept silent out of fear of being fired paid the highest price for his faustian bargain -- his son died of mesothelioma at the age of forty-three.

South Africa has been labeled as the "Mesothelioma Capital of the World". Black miners and their families were never told of the hazards and dangers associated with asbestos exposure through their work. However, when the companies learned of the proven dangers they finally began to teach the white workers about how to work with asbestos and prevent exposure.

According to one official with the National Center for Occupation Health, "South Africa has the biggest reservoir of asbestos-related diseases in the whole world." "We are looking here at a survivor population.These are the ones who haven't died."

** POSTED MARCH 9, 1999 **