Synopses & Reviews
From the mid-1940s to the mid-1970s, blue asbestos was mined in South Africa for worldwide use. More recently, it has been identified as one of the most dangerous carcinogens to which humans can be exposed. Yet the asbestos mining industry and the South African government have been slow to respond to the health concerns of miners and to the environmental devastation, which has left vast areas of the Northern Cape permanently hazardous. In Asbestos Blues, Jock McCulloch explores the extent to which the South African government participated in turning company profits at the expense of poor black workers. Were mining companies, manufacturers, and government regulators covering up the risks of asbestos mining? What measures are being taken to clean up the toxic environment? What is being done to address workers' health? Who will be held responsible? This hard-hitting book points to corporate greed as the root cause of South Africa's human and environmental disaster.
Synopsis
Includes bibliographical references (p. 209-216) and index.
About the Author
Jock McCulloch is Associate Professor in the Department of Social Science and Planning at RMIT University in Australia. He is author of Black Peril, White Virtue (Indiana University Press).
Table of Contents
Preliminary Table of Contents:
Preface
1. A Global Industry
2. The Mines
3. The Companies
4. Medical History
5. Life on the Mines
6. The State and Asbestos
7. Women Miners
8. Dust and Disease
9. The PRU Survey
10. Conclusion
Bibliography
Index