Perceptions of health hazards in the narratives of Italian migrant workers at an Australian asbestos mine (1943-1966)

Our plain-English summary of Perceptions of health hazards in the narratives of Italian migrant workers at an Australian asbestos mine (1943-1966), by F. Cappelletto, E. Merler (Social Science & Medicine, 2003).

The study

• Authors: F. Cappelletto, E. Merler
• Journal: Social Science & Medicine
• Published: 2003;56(5):1047-59
• Cited by: 6 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Abstract

This article reconstructs how workers perceived asbestos hazards, using narratives from a group of migrant workers at the crocidolite mine of Wittenoom Gorge, Western Australia. The mine employed about 7000 workers over the entire period of its operation from 1943 to 1966-relying heavily on migrant workers. The exposure to asbestos dust caused a huge number of occupational respiratory diseases in workers, leading Wittenoom later to be labelled as a modern industrial disaster. Fieldwork involved 137 interviews with Italians who had worked at Wittenoom. They constituted 18% of the mine's work-force and were employed as miners or millers between 1951 and 1966. We interviewed workers who had returned to Italy, relatives of Italian workers now deceased, and workers who had settled in Australia. The results confirm the seriousness of the occupational exposure to asbestos and the weaknesses of the health surveillance program. Although workers were given no health-related information, they felt they were at risk and left the job as soon as possible. From the early 1950s onward, some of the workers became aware of a long-term connection between work at Wittenoom and lung illnesses that required hospitalisation and caused deaths. However, up to the early 1960s, workers at the mine were led to believe that the respiratory disease spreading among them was tuberculosis.

In plain English

This was a qualitative interview study, with some counting of answers. It looked at how Italian migrant workers saw the health dangers of the Wittenoom crocidolite (blue asbestos) mine in Western Australia, which operated from 1943 to 1966. The authors recorded 137 semi-structured interviews: 110 with workers who had returned to Italy, seven with relatives of returned workers who had since died, and 20 with migrants living in Australia. Among living interviewed workers who had returned to Italy, 48% said the intensity of asbestos dust was why they quit. No worker contacted had been given any information on the job's health risks. Interviewees linked the dust to tuberculosis and silicosis rather than asbestosis. Tuberculosis was the only disease medical surveillance staff discussed with them until the 1960s. Even so, from the early 1950s workers saw co-workers hospitalised in Perth. The authors concluded that workers' existing awareness of danger was frustrated, delaying knowledge of crocidolite's long-term effects. They noted that Italians may not represent other groups, that many workers had died, and that memories may reflect later ideas.

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: Qualitative study based on semi-structured, recorded interviews (narrative analysis), with some quantitative tallies of answers
• Who was studied: Italian migrants who had worked at the Wittenoom mine, and relatives of some who had died. There were 137 interviews: 110 with workers who had returned to Italy, 7 with relatives of deceased returned migrants, and 20 with migrants settled in Australia. Interviews took place in northern and central Italy and in the Perth area. The authors interviewed 12.4% of all Italians who had worked at Wittenoom (1102 identified) and 57.9% of those alive who had returned to Italy.
• Exposure: Crocidolite (blue asbestos) dust from work as miners and millers at the Wittenoom mine. Miners had no masks. Millers were given masks only for extremely dusty tasks.
• Main results:
  • Among living interviewed workers, 48% said the intensity of asbestos dust exposure was the reason they quit. The article presents this figure with Table 1, which covers informants who had returned to Italy. The figure was 52% among those who left in the mine's first decade and 30% among those who left between 1959 and 1966.
  • No worker the authors contacted had been given any information on the health risks of the job.
  • About 64% of interviewees had a chest X-ray while working at Wittenoom, and 15% remembered a medical examination. Of 22 who worked after 1958 for more than a year, only one remembered a medical examination at Wittenoom.
  • Interviewees saw crocidolite dust as a cause of tuberculosis and silicosis rather than asbestosis. Tuberculosis was the only disease medical surveillance staff discussed with them until the 1960s.
  • Recollections indicated that from the early 1950s Italian workers were hospitalised in the Perth area. Workers understood that lung disease due to asbestos was emerging after people left Wittenoom.
  • Among the second wave of Italian migrants (recruited from immigrants arriving under bilateral agreements from 1952), about 30% refused to stay more than a few days or stayed only long enough to clear their debt.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that workers were to a certain degree aware of danger. Their awareness was frustrated, which the authors said delayed knowledge of the long-term effects of crocidolite and public health decisions in Australia and worldwide.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • Only Italian workers were studied, and they may not represent other groups' risk perceptions.
  • A large number of the workers had died by the time of the study.
  • Interviewees may have projected into the past ideas that developed after their time at Wittenoom.

Mines named here

Asbestos mines this study is about. Each mine's page says who ran it, when it worked, and what it produced.

• Wittenoom, Western Australia

All asbestos mines

Topics

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

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Crocidolite, Wittenoom, Occupational Exposure.

Related studies

• Asbestos-related mortality among Italian migrants to Western Australia — E. Merler, D. Balzi, et al. (1996)
• Migration and work in postwar Australia: mortality profile comparisons between Australian and Italian workers exposed to blue asbestos at Wittenoom — A. Reid, E. Merler, et al. (2018)
• Exposure to asbestos-containing vermiculite ore and respiratory symptoms among individuals who were children while the mine was active in Libby, Montana — L.C. Vinikoor, T.C. Larson, et al. (2010)
• Respiratory health in chrysotile asbestos miners in British Columbia: a longitudinal study — D.A. Enarson, V. Embree, et al. (1988)
• A risk assessment for exposure to grunerite asbestos (amosite) in an iron ore mine — R.P. Nolan, A.M. Langer, et al. (1999)
• The health of chrysotile asbestos mine and mill workers of Quebec — J.C. McDonald, M.R. Becklake, et al. (1974)

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