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. 2017 Aug 3;18(1):93.
doi: 10.1186/s12889-017-4640-x.

Public health implications of changing patterns of recruitment into the South African mining industry, 1973-2012: a database analysis

Rodney Ehrlich  1 , Alex Montgomery  2 , Paula Akugizibwe  3 , Gregg Gonsalves  4
Affiliations

Public health implications of changing patterns of recruitment into the South African mining industry, 1973-2012: a database analysis

Rodney Ehrlich et al. BMC Public Health. .

Erratum in

  • Erratum to: BMC Public Health, Vol. 18.
    [No authors listed] [No authors listed] BMC Public Health. 2017 Sep 22;17(1):736. doi: 10.1186/s12889-017-4709-6. BMC Public Health. 2017. PMID: 28938882 Free PMC article. No abstract available.

Abstract

Background: The triple epidemic of silicosis, tuberculosis and HIV infection among migrant miners from South Africa and neighbouring countries who have worked in the South African mining industry is currently the target of regional and international control efforts. These initiatives are hampered by a lack of information on this population.

Methods: This study analysed the major South African mining recruitment database for the period 1973 to 2012 by calendar intervals and demographic and occupational characteristics. Changes in area of recruitment were mapped using a geographic information system.

Results: The database contained over 10 million contracts, reducible to 1.64 million individuals. Major trends relevant to health projection were a decline in gold mining employment, the major source of silicosis; increasing recruitment of female miners; and shifts in recruitment from foreign to South African miners, from the Eastern to the Northwestern parts of South Africa, and from company employees to contractors.

Conclusions: These changes portend further externalisation of the burden of mining lung disease to home communities, as miners, particularly from the gold sector, leave the industry. The implications for health, surveillance and health services of the growing number of miners hired as contractors need further research, as does the health experience of female miners. Overall, the information in this report can be used for projection of disease burden and direction of compensation, screening and treatment services for the ex-miner population throughout Southern Africa.

Keywords: Gold; Migrant labour; Mining; Silicosis; Southern Africa; Tuberculosis.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The study was approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Health, University of Cape Town (ref. 309/2013). The researchers received an anonymised database to protect individual confidentiality.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

Prof. Ehrlich has written expert reports for plaintiff lawyers in silicosis litigation proceedings. The other authors report no conflict of interest.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Distribution of recruits to the South African mining industry at first contract, by district, 1973–1978. DRC: Democratic Republic of Congo
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Distribution of recruits to the South African mining industry at first contract, by district, 2008–2012. DRC: Democratic Republic of Congo
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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