Double standards: the multinational asbestos industry and asbestos-related disease in South Africa

Our plain-English summary of Double standards: the multinational asbestos industry and asbestos-related disease in South Africa, by J. McCulloch, G. Tweedale (International Journal of Health Services, 2004).

The study

• Authors: J. McCulloch, G. Tweedale
• Journal: International Journal of Health Services
• Published: 2004;34(4):663-79
• Type of article: Historical article
• Cited by: 2 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Abstract

This study documents and contrasts the development of knowledge about asbestos-related disease (ARD) in South Africa and the United Kingdom. It also contributes to the globalization debate by exploring corporate decision-making in a multinational industry. Between the 1930s and 1960s, the leading U.K. asbestos companies developed a sophisticated knowledge of ARD, though in South Africa, where the leading companies such as Turner & Newall and Cape Asbestos owned mines, there was little attempt to apply this knowledge. Asbestos mines (and their environments) in South Africa were uniquely dusty and ARD was rife. Social and political factors in South Africa, especially apartheid, allowed these companies to apply double standards, even after 1960 when the much more serious hazard of mesothelioma was identified. This shows the need for greater regulation of multinationals. Because of the lack of such regulation in the early 1960s, an opportunity was lost to prevent the current high morbidity and mortality of ARD both in South Africa and worldwide.

In plain English

Drawing on archives, interviews and their own earlier research, the authors wrote a history comparing how knowledge of asbestos-related disease developed in the United Kingdom and in South African mines owned by three UK firms: Cape Asbestos, Turner & Newall (T&N) and GEFCO. They described an unpublished 1930 thesis by mine doctor George Slade that found shortness of breath in 72 of 100 workers at a chrysotile mill. They reported that asbestosis was not mentioned in a Department of Mines annual report until 1968. A 1960 to 1962 Pneumoconiosis Research Unit survey covering 2,389 residents of mining towns identified four new mesothelioma cases. According to the authors, industry then withdrew its funding, the survey was halted, and mesothelioma was virtually erased from the 1964 final report. The UK industry agreed in 1970 to stop importing blue asbestos (crocidolite), yet it was mined in South Africa into the 1990s. The authors concluded that the companies applied double standards and that only government regulation could compel better health standards. They noted that most South African records of T&N and Cape appear lost or destroyed.

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: Historical analysis (not a medical or epidemiological study) drawing on archives, company documents, interviews and the authors' own earlier research
• Who was studied: Three UK asbestos companies (Cape Asbestos and its subsidiary CASAP, Turner & Newall, and GEFCO) and the workers and communities at their mines in South Africa, Swaziland and Southern Rhodesia, from the 1890s to the early 2000s, compared with the UK experience
• Exposure: Mining and dry milling of blue (crocidolite), brown (amosite) and white (chrysotile) asbestos, plus environmental exposure of residents of mining towns
• Main results:
  • In Slade's 1926 to 1930 thesis on a chrysotile mine (almost certainly T&N's New Amianthus), 72 of the 100 mill workers had shortness of breath, and evidence of asbestos-related disease was found in 70 percent of mill workers; the thesis was never published
  • Asbestosis was not mentioned in a South African Department of Mines annual report until 1968
  • Schepers, describing a 1949 visit to Penge mine, reported children trampling amosite into bags, several of whom had X-ray evidence of asbestosis with cor pulmonale before age 12
  • In 1952 a Department of Native Affairs health officer, Peacock, examined 26 black workers including five women and found lung disease in six, three of them probably from their current employment
  • The Pneumoconiosis Research Unit survey (November 1960 to February 1962) covered 2,389 residents of Prieska, Koegas, Kuruman and Penge and identified four new cases of mesothelioma
  • Industry and South African Cancer Association funding was canceled, the survey was halted, and the 1964 final report virtually erased reference to mesothelioma
  • The UK industry agreed in 1970 to cease importing blue asbestos, but it continued to be mined in South Africa into the 1990s
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that the UK companies applied double standards in South Africa, that only government regulation could compel them to adopt better health standards, and that suppressing the survey caused a lost opportunity between 1955 and 1965 to reduce asbestos disease in South Africa and worldwide
• Limitations the authors state:
  • Evidence on working conditions in the South African mines is sparse
  • Most of T&N's South African records appear to have been destroyed, and most Cape Asbestos records, including those of its South African operations, are apparently lost or destroyed

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Asbestosis.

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Turner & Newall, Cape Asbestos, Mesothelioma.

Related studies

• Asbestos-related disease in South Africa: the social production of an invisible epidemic — L. Braun, S. Kisting (2006)
• The social context of occupational disease: asbestos and South Africa — J. Myers (1981)
• Asbestos mining in Southern Africa, 1893-2002 — J. McCulloch (2003)
• South Africa's export trade in asbestos: demise of an industry — J.S. Harington, N.D. McGlashan, et al. (2010)
• Compensation for environmental asbestos-related diseases in South Africa: a neglected issue — N. Ndlovu, J.T. Naude, et al. (2013)
• Health effects of amosite mining and milling in South Africa — J. Murray, G. Nelson (2008)

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