494 Mining and Health
Holding corporations accountable
Many mining operations are run by multinational corporations whose
headquarters are in countries far from the mine site. This makes it difficult to
pressure them for change. But people around the world have organized and forced
corporations to change their practices and even to abandon mining projects.
Asbestos miners finally win in court
When Audrey was a child, she worked at a mine in South Africa for the Cape
Mining Company of Britain. Her job was to step up and down on piles of
asbestos powder so that it could be packed into bags for shipping. A supervisor
watched her and the other children to make sure they never stopped working.
If she stopped, he would whip her. Audrey became very sick from breathing in
asbestos, and so did many other workers.
Thirty years later, Audrey joined thousands of other South Africans to
sue the British company for causing her health problems. The company spent
3 years arguing that the South African courts should hear the case. Audrey
and the people she worked with believed a South African court would not give
them a fair trial against a big company that brought a lot of money into the
country. Audrey and others traveled to other countries to tell people about
their struggle and win support. Finally the courts agreed to hear the case in
Britain, the home base of the asbestos company.
After almost 5 years of legal battle, the company gave up. They paid
the miners tens of millions of dollars for the harm they caused. Today, most
countries ban asbestos mining and many countries ban the use of asbestos
altogether. Finally in 2008, South Africa went from being one of the world’s
largest producers of asbestos to prohibiting the use or manufacture of
asbestos or any asbestos product.
A Community Guide to Environmental Health 2012