WOMEN LIVING WITH ASBESTOS.

An asbestos sufferer and her daughter have built a house with her occupational compensation money, but do not have enough cash left to put up a roof. "The reason people can't do things is because they don't have the money to start. The simplest things demand tools. The people up there (living in the former Pietersburg asbestos field) have no money," asbestos expert professor Tony Davies says. Davies, former chief director of Occupational Health, has been studying the effects of the mining of hazardous asbestos in the Penge area in the Northern Province for years. "I'm trying to make the compensation system work. Most people hate to give money to the poor ... but it's important to put as much money as possible into the infrastructure of the community. They are faithful and hard-working. "There is one woman who used her R10000 to build a house with her daughter. It's a really good house they built, but they still need money for a roof. "Some of the people would start off by buying a bakkie or get themselves decent houses. They also use the money for school fees and health care. "Those who believe that they drink out all the money are way off the mark." Davies recently took part in a study on 200 women in Sekhukuneland formerly employed on asbestos mines in the Northern Province. The amosite and crocidolite asbestos mines were located on the southern slopes of the Strydpoort Mountains along the Olifants River. Most were small mines except for Penge, the biggest amosite asbestos mine in the world. Mining there started in 1914 and smaller mines started operating in the same area from 1920. The smaller mines closed around 1976 while Penge operations were only shut down in 1992. Thousands of people in the Northern Province and Northern Cape, where other asbestos mines operated, have since been diagnosed with diseases resulting directly from the inhalation of hazardous asbestos. A court battle between about 8000 South Africans claiming compensation from United Kingdom-based asbestos mining company Cape plc is currently underway in the Royal Courts of Justice in London. "The women of Sekhukuneland may be one of the largest groups of asbestos exposed women in the world ... In the mid-1960s an estimated 10000 men and women were employed on these mines." Two thirds of the 200 women had not been medically examined since leaving the mines. This is despite the fact that the law stipulates that people who have worked in the mines are entitled to free medical examinations at intervals not less than six months for the rest of their lives. Davies also found that literacy levels among these women were low and that "they are not well equipped to cope with the centralised bureaucratic system for claiming compensation". "This sample of the women who have worked on the asbestos mines is probably representative of the many thousands, in Sekhukuneland and elsewhere, who have been affected (by asbestos). Their household, environmental and work exposure was considerable. "No future group of women will ever be exposed to the dust levels experienced in South African asbestos mines in the 40 years after the Second World War." Davies believes that in the absence of any therapeutic intervention reparation is the only option. He said the study indicated how important it was to have a well-informed community-based infrastructure to assist the claimants. The Health Department believes user-friendly programmes are in place to make the compensation system work. ...