The social context of occupational disease: asbestos and South Africa

Our plain-English summary of The social context of occupational disease: asbestos and South Africa, by J. Myers (International Journal of Health Services, 1981).

The study

• Author: J. Myers
• Journal: International Journal of Health Services
• Published: 1981;11(2):227-45
• Cited by: 10 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Abstract

General issues of industrial health are raised in relation to the production of asbestos and asbestos-related diseases in South Africa., A historical analysis of these diseases and their control in Britain demonstrates some general problems of occupational diseases with long incubation periods and their implications for capital and labor. In order to understand the role of the research establishment, an attempt is made to situate the state in the conflict between capital and labor. The terms and weapons of this ideological arena are investigated. The South African situation is then discussed. Its evident weaknesses--the lack of statutory limits on exposure, capital's responsibility for monitoring exposure and health, the inefficiency of the state inspection, and the meagerness and racial disparities in compensation--are related to the weakness of organized labor. These weaknesses are linked to the movement of certain industrial processes, finally acknowledged as unsafe by most academic research, away from the developed countries. In these countries, the strength of labor and environmental organizations has caused a decline in capitalist productivity.

In plain English

This 1981 article is a social and political analysis, not an original medical study. The author drew on published research, government reports, mining statistics and interviews to examine asbestos disease control in Britain and South Africa. The article describes South Africa as the only producer of crocidolite and amosite. The author reported that South Africa had no statutory limits on asbestos exposure, that industry largely did its own dust monitoring, and that in 1976 there were 29 factory inspectors for 30,097 factories. Figures the author compiled from official sources showed that Africans made up 92 percent of the asbestos mine labor force in 1977-1978 but 57 percent of certifications for asbestos-related disease. On the 1979 mesothelioma register, Africans were 193 of the 689 cases of known race (28.0 percent). The author read these figures as a significant underestimate of disease among Africans. Under the miners' compensation system, dependents of deceased African workers received two thirds of the full amount for compensable disease, while those of whites and coloreds received the full amount. The author concluded that these weaknesses reflected weak organized labor, and that unsafe asbestos processes were shifting to underdeveloped countries.

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: Social and historical policy analysis drawing on other studies, official statistics, company and government reports, and interviews; not an original epidemiological study
• Who was studied: The South African asbestos industry in the 1970s: 21,665 miners in 1977, and about 5,200 manufacturing workers the author traced (78 percent African). The article also covers the history of asbestos regulation in the United Kingdom.
• Exposure: Asbestos mining (crocidolite in the Cape, amosite in the Transvaal, and chrysotile) and asbestos products manufacture, mainly asbestos cement, including factories using crocidolite
• Main results:
  • South Africa had no statutory exposure limits. Mine guidelines were 45 f/cc until 1975, then 12 f/cc. At the time of writing they were 5 long fibers per cc underground and 10 f/cc on the surface.
  • The standard mine measuring method (Konimeter) underestimated by up to six times compared with personal sampling (Casella). Measured by the Casella method, many major mines were above the guidelines in 1976-1977, and almost all were above the U.K. 2 f/cc level.
  • In 1976 there was one pollution inspector for 200 scheduled industries and 29 factory inspectors for 30,097 factories.
  • 1979 South African mesothelioma register, by race: 357 white cases (51.8 percent) and 193 African cases (28.0 percent). In the mine work force, whites were 5 percent and Africans 92 percent. There were 712 cases in total, 23 of unknown race.
  • About 25 to 30 mesothelioma cases were added to the South African register each year, compared with about 60 a year in the U.K. The author interpreted the South African figures as an underestimate.
  • In 1977-1978, 53 percent of white miners compensated for pneumoconiosis were compensated for an asbestos-related condition. Asbestos miners made up only 1.3 percent of the white mine labor force.
  • In 1977-1978, Africans made up 92 percent of the asbestos mine labor force and 57 percent of asbestos-related disease certifications. Whites made up 5 percent of the labor force and 43 percent of certifications.
  • Under the mining compensation system, when a worker entitled to compensation had died, dependents of whites and coloreds were entitled to the full amount. Dependents of Africans were paid two thirds of the full amount for compensable disease, or compensable disease plus tuberculosis, and one half for tuberculosis alone. Manufacturing workers were covered separately, under the Workmen's Compensation Act.
  • Of all compensation paid to mine workers, 62 percent went to whites, 7 percent to coloreds and 32 percent to Africans.
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that most researchers and officials had come to accept that there is no safe level of asbestos exposure. In response, the author argued, industry was shifting unsafe processes to underdeveloped countries such as South Africa, where organized resistance was weaker and controls less stringent.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The mesothelioma register cannot be used to calculate incidence rates, because neither the case count nor the population at risk is reliable.
  • Compensation for asbestos disease could not be separated from total compensation paid.
  • Most South African information relates only to asbestosis, and there is no cancer registry, so the true disease burden is unknown.
  • The details of labor and environmental pressure in each country were not examined.
  • Precise production and export figures were unavailable because export tonnages are kept secret.

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Occupational Disease.

Related studies

• Asbestos-related disease in South Africa: the social production of an invisible epidemic — L. Braun, S. Kisting (2006)
• Double standards: the multinational asbestos industry and asbestos-related disease in South Africa — J. McCulloch, G. Tweedale (2004)
• Collaborative research, participatory solutions: research on asbestos in Kuruman, South Africa — N. Jacobs, S. Kisting, et al. (2004)
• Excess mortality from stomach cancer, lung cancer, and asbestosis and/or mesothelioma in crocidolite mining districts in South Africa — J.L. Botha, L.M. Irwig, et al. (1986)
• The mortality of amphibole miners in South Africa, 1946-80 — G.K. Sluis-Cremer, F.D. Liddell, et al. (1992)
• Risk of asbestosis in crocidolite and amosite mines in South Africa — L.M. Irwig, R.S. du Toit, et al. (1979)

Browse more research in International Journal of Health Services, or return to medical research.