US EPA

3094573 

Technical Report 

Three Minerals, Three Epidemics Asbestos Mining and Disease in South Africa 

Felix, MA; Leger J-P; Ehrlich, RI 

1994 

NIOSH/00224022 

Asbestos and Cancers 

Asbestos and Cancers 

The history of asbestos mining and the epidemiology of asbestos (1332214) related diseases in South Africa were reviewed. Three types of asbestos have primarily been mined in South Africa, crocidolite (12001284), amosite (12172735), and chrysotile (12001295). The earliest studies relating disease to asbestos exposure in South Africa were reported in the late 1920s and a 1931 study of chrysotile mill workers demonstrated the presence of abnormalities in 74% of the workers. An association between pleural mesothelioma and asbestos exposure was not reported until the mid 1950s and by 1960 47 cases of mesothelioma associated with asbestos exposure had been identified in South Africa. A study of the white population in the vicinity of an asbestos mine indicated that the cumulative mortality rate for mesothelioma in this cohort was 1,000 times higher than the rate for all South Africans. In addition, excesses of mortality from asbestosis and malignant neoplasms of the bronchus, lung, and stomach were identified in populations residing in crocidolite mining districts. Poor working conditions and increases in disease and mortality rates were reported as well as early as 1949 in amphibole mines. Other nonmining asbestos workers including mill workers and ship loaders were found to be at risk for developing asbestos related disease. The first South African dust standards for asbestos mines were established in 1956 and these standards were refined in the 1970s and again in the following decade. Control of atmospheric pollution was not enforced until the mid 1980s.