Silicosis prevalence among gold miners continues to soar, study finds.

South Africa's gold mining industry has been damned as the biggest contributor to the prevalence of silicosis, which in six years has almost doubled in both black and white mine workers, a study of autopsies conducted in 2006 by the National Institute for Occupational Health has found.

The study also found that the overall rate of pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) in black gold miners has more than doubled since 1999.

For every 1 000 black gold miners examined, active PTB rates increased from 171 in 1999 to 398 in 2006. In black platinum miners, the rate decreased from 315 in 2002 to 275 in 2006.

Following the trend of the past few years, the overall prevalence of silicosis per 1 000 miners in all commodities increased from 216 in 2005 to 237 in 2006, according to the report.

The silicosis rate in the gold industry was by far the highest at 31.6 percent of all gold miners examined, versus 6.3 percent for platinum, 5.2 percent for coal and 5.4 percent for asbestos.

The report added that the majority of black and white men with emphysema were from the gold mining industry.

Silicosis is an occupational lung disease caused by inhaling the free silica dust found in mines and quarries where quartz concentrations are high.

The National Institute for Occupational Health said silicosis was progressive and incurable and might lead to significant impairment. The detection of silicosis is dependent on radiology. Safe silica dust levels were unknown, it said.

The number of female cases submitted for autopsy declined from 43 in 2005 to 22 in 2006. Of these, 21 had a lung disease, mostly related to asbestos.

The Occupational Diseases in Mines and Works Act (Odimwa) requires that the cardio-respiratory organs of any deceased person who has worked at a controlled mine be examined for the presence of occupational disease, regardless of the clinical cause of death. In 2006 there were 1 720 autopsies conducted.

A detailed report on each case is sent to the Medical Bureau for Occupational Disease and cases certified as having compensatable diseases are then referred to the compensation commissioner's office.

It is the compensation paid out to ill mine workers by the compensation commissioner in terms of Odimwa that Thembekile Mankayi, through his lawyer, Richard Spoor, challenged when he instituted a damages claim of R2.7 million against AngloGold Ashanti in the Johannesburg high court this week. Justice Meyer Joffe reserved judgment.

While this was the first case of its kind to be heard, 10 gold miners who worked on Anglo American's Free State mines from 1958 to 1998 instituted a lawsuit in the Johannesburg high court in August 2004.

The claims were for damages on behalf of the miners and were test cases to not only secure compensation for miners who contracted silicosis and pthysis, but also to establish a fund to monitor and treat occupational respiratory disease in former gold miners.

This week Richard Meeran, the lawyer who filed that lawsuit, said the overriding objective of their case and that of Spoor's case was the same, to claim compensation for silicosis and silicosis/tuberculosis contracted on the mines.

"The legal approach that we take is different. Spoor's case directly challenges the application of the bar in the worker's compensation legislation whereas ours is a case against the former head office of the former parent company on the basis that the parent company negligently advanced the subsidiary mining companies."

Meeran confirmed that a further objective was to secure a fund for medical monitoring of people who had been exposed to excessive amounts of silica dust, which the mining companies were well aware was hazardous to their health.

"They had flagrant disregard towards the health of the workers at the expense of profit. If they can track these diseases they will be diagnosed as quickly as possible and get whatever treatment is necessary," Meeran said.

Many former miners were at risk of contracting these diseases in future due to the excessive dust to which they had been exposed during their working lives.

"We're dealing with a disease that has a long latency period, as with asbestos and mesothelioma. Workers, after they have retired, will contract these diseases, often in places where they're not going to be diagnosed," said Meeran.

"The mining industry washes its hands of them, or has done up until now, taking the view that the people are no longer employed and they're no longer the responsibility of the mining industry."

He expected to go to trial some time next year.

Meeran, a consultant to London law firm Leigh Day, acted on behalf of 3 500 South Africans who sued Cape, a British multinational, for damages after they became ill with asbestos-related diseases.

The case is being conducted by the Legal Resources Centre.Jabu Maphalala, communications consultant to the Chamber of Mines, said a lot of initiatives had been put in place to understand silicosis.

"In that process we are looking to address the key factors. Silicosis over a period is an issue which makes it difficult to take interventions as swiftly as one could," he said.

The chamber was determined to combat silicosis as well as all occupational and health and safety issues.

It was working on a major study to address specifically the issues of identifying good safety and health performance.