Asbestos mining in Southern Africa, 1893-2002

Abstract

Asbestos has been mined in Southern Africa for more than a century. Chrysotile from the mines of Swaziland and Zimbabwe was marketed around the globe, while South African mines produced almost all of the world's amphibole fiber. The major mines were owned and operated by British firms that in the United Kingdom from 1931 were subject to occupational health and safety legislation. The failure of those companies to apply knowledge of the dangers of asbestos to their Southern African operations saw men, women, and children labor in conditions that would have been unthinkable in Britain. The result has been a legacy of disease and environmental pollution.