Occupational chest diseases in gold miners: a review of progress in the Union of South Africa

Our plain-English summary of Occupational chest diseases in gold miners: a review of progress in the Union of South Africa, by G. W. H. Schepers (1955).

The study

• Author: G. W. H. Schepers
• Published: Archives of Industrial Health, vol. 12, pp. 33-47 (July 1955)
• Type of article: Journal article
• Our copy: from Johns-Manville's own medical library. The article is still under copyright, so we describe it here rather than post it.

In plain English

This article by G. W. H. Schepers is a review of silicosis and tuberculosis among gold miners in the Union of South Africa. It draws mainly on government reports covering about 60 years. It does not concern asbestos. The author described the history of the Miners' Phthisis Bureau and later government commissions, and charted disease trends. Among white miners, the silicosis production rate at the time of the 1930 conference had dropped to 13.79 per 1000, from 27.87 per 1000 ten years earlier. Between 1952 and 1954, certification of new silicosis cases among white miners rose from a little more than 200 per year to more than 1000. The author attributed this rise to the Bureau applying new diagnostic criteria. Among the workers the article calls "Negro laborers," more than 1700 new silicosis cases and more than 1100 new tuberculosis cases were found during 1953-1954. The author estimated a tuberculosis new case rate in excess of 600 per 100,000 for this group. The author noted that only about 2% of these laborers were examined by the Bureau. The author concluded that progress was favorable overall but that too much harmful dust was still being breathed.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: narrative review of historical and statistical trends, based largely on official South African government and Bureau reports
• Who was studied: white miners (more than 30,000 by 1953-1954) and laborers the article calls "Negro laborers" (about 300,000, scheduled gold mines only) in the gold mines of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, over about 60 years up to 1954
• Exposure: mine dust from gold-bearing rock (banket) in deep gold mines; silica (quartz) dust. No asbestos exposure is studied
• Main results:
  • The general silicosis production rate at the time of the 1930 conference had fallen to 13.79 per 1000, from 27.87 per 1000 ten years earlier
  • Among white miners, certification of new silicosis cases rose from a little more than 200 per year to more than 1000 between 1952 and 1954
  • The author attributed the surge in certifications to the Bureau applying new diagnostic criteria to existing definitions
  • Among Negro laborers during 1953-1954, more than 1700 new silicosis cases and more than 1100 new tuberculosis cases were found
  • Relating the approximately 2000 tuberculosis cases among Negro laborers to the whole 300,000 workforce gave a new case rate above 600 per 100,000. The author stated this was 10 times the rate in South Africa's white population
  • Among white silicotics, less than 23% of the 1917 and 1921 cohorts survived 30 years. Of the 1941 group, only about 30% had died within 10 years of certification
  • Among tuberculotic white miners, 26% of the 1918 cohort were surviving after 20 years, and less than 22% of the 1938 cohort were alive after 16 years
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that the review showed overall favorable progress but that conquest was not in sight. The author judged that too much harmful dust was still being breathed and that the 'ideal' dust level of 200 particles per cubic centimeter was not yet satisfactory
• Limitations the authors state:
  • No accurate statistics were available on the average dust exposures of the Negro laborers
  • Only about 2% of Negro laborers were examined by the Bureau
  • The tuberculosis rates charted for white miners included only cases first found in miners without prior silicosis, so they do not show total tuberculosis incidence

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Silicosis.

Browse return to medical research.