Asbestos and asbestos-related disease: the South African case

Our plain-English summary of Asbestos and asbestos-related disease: the South African case, by J.E. Myers, J. Aron, I.A. Macun (International Journal of Health Services, 1987).

The study

• Authors: J.E. Myers, J. Aron, I.A. Macun
• Journal: International Journal of Health Services
• Published: 1987;17(4):651-66
• Cited by: 4 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher
• In J-M's library: Johns-Manville's company medical library held a copy (J-M no. 000989).

Abstract

The asbestos industry in South Africa has suffered a decline in production, employment, and sales over the last few years. This mirrors the state of the industry internationally. In South Africa this has more to do with the economic recession than with legislative restrictions on asbestos use. New information has become available on the extent of asbestos-related diseases in South Africa. In this article, we outline developments in labor organization in the asbestos industry, and discuss the marked lack of control of asbestos, the inadequate state compensation system, and the difficulties facing labor. After describing recent improvements won by trade unions, mainly in the transnational corporation sector, we discuss the implications for industry, labor, and control of the asbestos hazard.

In plain English

This article was a review and analysis, not an original medical study. It looked at the South African asbestos industry in the mid-1980s: production of crocidolite, amosite and chrysotile, employment, exposure regulation, compensation and trade union organization. The authors drew on mining statistics, government compensation reports, company reports, news media and earlier published studies. They reported that asbestos mines fell from 43 in 1972 to seven in 1983, and mine labor from 21,324 to 5,664. There were still no statutory exposure regulations for miners and millers. Between 1977-78 and 1984-85, the numbers compensated fell by about half for black mineworkers, and compensation for pleural asbestosis fell by 83 percent among whites and "coloureds." In 1984, African workers made up 92 percent of the asbestos-mine labor force but 68 percent of asbestos-related disease certifications, and their monetary awards were much smaller. The authors concluded that the compensation structures seemed designed more to frustrate victims than to recompense them. They attributed improvements in asbestos manufacturing and transport basically to effective worker organization.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Review and policy analysis of the South African asbestos industry, regulation, compensation and labor organization, based on official statistics, company reports, news media and previously published studies
• Who was studied: The South African asbestos industry and its workers, mainly asbestos miners (mines in the North Western Cape and Northern Transvaal) and asbestos-cement, stevedoring and transport workers, roughly 1972 to 1986
• Exposure: Crocidolite, amosite and chrysotile asbestos from mining, milling, asbestos-cement manufacture and export handling, plus environmental exposure from mine dumps and asbestos-cement township housing
• Main results:
  • The number of asbestos mines in operation fell from 43 in 1972 to seven in 1983. Labor on the mines fell from 21,324 to 5,664 over the same period.
  • There were no statutory regulations on exposure of miners and millers. Informal levels set by the government mining engineer were reduced to 2 fibers per milliliter in January 1985. The authors noted that published literature (another study) showed exposures often above 10 f/mL.
  • Comparing 1977-78 with 1984-85 on the mines, the numbers compensated fell by about half for blacks in all categories for all grades of compensable disease. For whites and "coloureds," numbers stayed constant except for pleural asbestosis, which fell by 83 percent. The authors said the pleural asbestosis decrease could not be explained by the decline in miner numbers.
  • In 1984, African workers made up 92 percent of the asbestos-mine labor force but 68 percent of asbestos-related disease certifications. White/coloured workers made up 8 percent of the labor force and 32 percent of certifications. The authors described this as racial inequality in the rate of compensation.
  • Monetary awards under the Occupational Diseases in Mines and Works Act differed by race. For pneumoconiosis with functional disability, the table lists 33,207 for whites, 17,711 for coloureds, 2,051 for Africans and 1,368 for Africans post mortem.
  • Lung cancer was not officially compensable outside the mining industry. Lung cancer, asbestosis and mesothelioma were not compensable for heavily environmentally exposed people in the asbestos mining areas.
  • After unionization, workers at Everite gained several changes. Crocidolite was no longer used in its asbestos-cement products. Union-nominated doctors gained access to company medical records. Past workers got free postemployment follow-up examinations. Warning labels were placed on products, though the warnings did not include the word cancer.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that the industry's decline reflected the recession and also the type of asbestos produced (amphibole). They said statutory regulation remained absent, and that compensation structures seemed designed more to frustrate victims than to recompense them. They held that improvements in the manufacturing and transport sectors were basically attributable to effective worker organization, with little if any improvement in mining, building and construction, and state transport.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • There was no overall figure for people working with or handling asbestos in South Africa. Figures for the non-mining asbestos industry were not readily available.
  • Compensation figures for workers in industry (outside the mines) were unknown because the Workmen's Compensation Commissioner did not publish them or make them available.
  • The mesothelioma register rate (seven per million) was described as almost certainly an underestimate. The asbestos-related lung cancer rate was undocumented.

Related studies

• Global asbestos justice: South African asbestos victims win right to sue Cape PLC in U.K. courts — L. Kazan-Allen (2001)
• South African experience with asbestos related environmental mesothelioma: is asbestos fiber type important? — N. White, G. Nelson, et al. (2008)
• Radiologic abnormalities in South African mica millers: a survey of a mica milling plant in the Limpopo Province — E. Venter, B. Nyantumbu, et al. (2004)
• Cape Plc: South African mineworkers' quest for justice — R. Meeran (2003)
• The social context of occupational disease: asbestos and South Africa — J. Myers (1981)
• A respiratory epidemiological study of stevedores intermittently exposed to asbestos in a South African port — J.E. Myers, D. Garisch, et al. (1985)

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