South Africa's Gold Mines & the Politics of Silicosis

South Africa's Gold Mines & the Politics of Silicosis PDF Author: Jock McCulloch
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd
ISBN: 1847010598
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 205

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Book Description
Examines the silicosis crisis in the South African mining industry, and reveals how the rate of, often fatal, tuberculosis among black migrant miners was hidden for over a century. South Africa's gold mines are the largest and historically among the most profitable in the world. Yet at what human cost? This book reveals how the mining industry, abetted by a minority state, hid a pandemic of silicosis for almost a century and allowed miners infected with tuberculosis to spread disease to rural communities in South Africa and to labour-sending states. In the twentieth century, South African mines twice faced a crisis over silicosis, which put its workers at risk of contracting pulmonary tuberculosis, often fatal. The first crisis, 1896-1912, saw the mining industry invest heavily in reducing dust and South Africa became renowned for its mine safety. The second began in 2000 with mounting scientific evidence that the disease rate among miners is more than a hundred times higher than officially acknowledged. The first crisis also focused upon disease among the minority white miners: the current crisis is about black migrant workers, and is subject to major class actions for compensation. Jock McCulloch was a Legislative Research Specialist for the Australian parliament and has taught at various universities. His books include Asbestos Blues. Southern Africa (South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho, Swaziland & Botswana): Jacana

South Africa's Gold Mines & the Politics of Silicosis

South Africa's Gold Mines & the Politics of Silicosis PDF Author: Jock McCulloch
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd
ISBN: 1847010598
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 205

Get Book

Book Description
Examines the silicosis crisis in the South African mining industry, and reveals how the rate of, often fatal, tuberculosis among black migrant miners was hidden for over a century. South Africa's gold mines are the largest and historically among the most profitable in the world. Yet at what human cost? This book reveals how the mining industry, abetted by a minority state, hid a pandemic of silicosis for almost a century and allowed miners infected with tuberculosis to spread disease to rural communities in South Africa and to labour-sending states. In the twentieth century, South African mines twice faced a crisis over silicosis, which put its workers at risk of contracting pulmonary tuberculosis, often fatal. The first crisis, 1896-1912, saw the mining industry invest heavily in reducing dust and South Africa became renowned for its mine safety. The second began in 2000 with mounting scientific evidence that the disease rate among miners is more than a hundred times higher than officially acknowledged. The first crisis also focused upon disease among the minority white miners: the current crisis is about black migrant workers, and is subject to major class actions for compensation. Jock McCulloch was a Legislative Research Specialist for the Australian parliament and has taught at various universities. His books include Asbestos Blues. Southern Africa (South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho, Swaziland & Botswana): Jacana

South Africa's Gold Mines and the Politics of Silicosis

South Africa's Gold Mines and the Politics of Silicosis PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN: 9786613978523
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
South Africa's gold mines are the largest and historically among the most profitable in the world. Yet at what human cost? This book reveals how the mining industry, abetted by a minority state, hid a pandemic of silicosis for almost a century and allowed miners infected with tuberculosis to spread disease to rural communities in South Africa and to labour-sending states. In the twentieth century, South African mines twice faced a crisis over silicosis, which put its workers at risk of contracting pulmonary tuberculosis, often fatal. The first crisis, 1896-1912, saw the mining industry invest heavily in reducing dust and South Africa became renowned for its mine safety. The second began in 2000 with mounting scientific evidence that the disease rate among miners is more than a hundred times higher than officially acknowledged. The first crisis also focused upon disease among the minority white miners: the current crisis is about black migrant workers, and is subject to major class actions for compensation. Jock McCulloch was a Legislative Research Specialist for the Australian parliament and has taught at various universities. His books include 'Asbestos Blues'. Southern Africa (South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho, Swaziland & Botswana) : Jacana.

South Africa's Gold Mines and the Politics of Silicosis

South Africa's Gold Mines and the Politics of Silicosis PDF Author: Jock McCulloch
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781782047469
Category : HISTORY
Languages : en
Pages : 202

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Book Description


The White Death

The White Death PDF Author: Elaine Katz
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Gold mines and mining
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
Silicosis, or miners' phthisis, is an occupational incurable disease caused by prolonged exposure to dust containing microscopic silica particles. This book focuses on the daily lives of ordinary working people, and builds a picture of the devastation wrought by The White Death.

Mining Gold and Manufacturing Ignorance

Mining Gold and Manufacturing Ignorance PDF Author: Jock McCulloch
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 9811983275
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 459

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Book Description
This open access book charts how South Africa’s gold mines have systematically suppressed evidence of hazardous work practices and the risks associated with mining. For most of the twentieth century, South Africa was the world’s largest producer of gold. Although the country enjoyed a reputation for leading the world in occupational health legislation, the mining companies developed a system of medical surveillance and workers’ compensation which compromised the health of black gold miners, facilitated the spread of tuberculosis, and ravaged the communities and economies of labour-sending states. The culmination of two decades of meticulous archival research, this book exposes the making, contesting, and unravelling of the companies’ capacity to shape – and corrupt – medical knowledge.

Labour in the South African Gold Mines 1911-1969

Labour in the South African Gold Mines 1911-1969 PDF Author: Francis Wilson
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521175098
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 250

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Book Description
A 1972 book on the determination of wages amongst miners in South Africa.

Broke and Broken

Broke and Broken PDF Author: Lucas Ledwaba
Publisher: Blackbird Books
ISBN: 192833735X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 118

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Book Description
In 1889 a gold rush broke out on the Witwatersrand, changing South Africa's history forever. More than 130 years later the mining industry is still one of the biggest drivers of the economy, but at the expense of those who work underground. Broke & Broken is the story of the thousands of men from South Africa and beyond its borders who paid with their lives for generations. These are men who left their homes as healthy, ambitious youngsters and returned broke, broken and bitter; victims of the shameful legacy of gold mining. The book seeks to say the names of the mineworkers who have built this country's economy, because their own stories and their own spirits need to be magnified. The precious stone they spent most of their lives digging brought no shine to their lives - only pain, tears and death.

Silicosis

Silicosis PDF Author: Paul-André Rosental
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 1421421569
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 293

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Book Description
The most comprehensive book to date on the history of silicosis and the strategies used to combat it. Despite the common perception that “black lung” has been relegated to the dustbin of history, silicosis remains a crucial public health problem that threatens millions of people around the world. This painful and incurable chronic disease, still present in old industrial regions, is now expanding rapidly in emerging economies around the globe. Most industrial sectors—including the metallurgical, glassworking, foundry, stonecutting, building, and tunneling industries—expose their workers to lethal crystalline silica dust. Dental prosthodontists are also at risk, as are sandblasters, pencil factory workers in developing nations, and anyone who handles concentrated sand squirt to clean oil tanks, build ships, or fade blue jeans. In Silicosis, eleven experts argue that silicosis is more than one of the most pressing global health concerns today—it is an epidemic in the making. Essays explain how the understanding of the disease has been shaken by new medical findings and technologies, developments in industrializing countries, and the spread of the disease to a wide range of professions beyond coal mining. Examining the global reactions to silicosis, the authors trace the history of the disease and show how this occupational health hazard first came to be recognized as well as the steps that were necessary to deal with it at that time. Adopting a global perspective, Silicosis offers comparative insights into a variety of different medical and political strategies to combat silicosis. It also analyzes the importance of transnational processes—carried on by international organizations and NGOs and sparked by waves of migrant labor—which have been central to the history of silicosis since the early twentieth century. Ultimately, by bringing together historians and physicians from around the world, Silicosis pioneers a new collective method of writing the global history of disease. Aimed at legal and public health scholars, physicians, political economists, social scientists, historians, and all readers concerned by labor and civil society movements in the contemporary world, this book contains lessons that will be applicable not only to people working on combating silicosis but also to people examining other occupational diseases now and in the future. Contributors: Alberto Baldasseroni, Francesco Carnevale, Éric Geerkens, Martin Lengwiler, Gerald Markowitz, Jock McCulloch, Joseph Melling, Julia Moses, Paul-André Rosental, David Rosner, Bernard Thomann

Report

Report PDF Author: Chamber of Mines of South Africa, Johannesburg
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description


A History of African Popular Culture

A History of African Popular Culture PDF Author: Karin Barber
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107016894
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 213

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Book Description
A journey through the history of African popular culture from the seventeenth century to the present day.