Conspicuous disease: The surveillance of silicosis in South Africa, 1910-1970.
Scholarly understanding of the nature of the science around silicosis has been strongly influenced, in recent years, by the idea that the mine doctors were responsible for hiding an epidemic, on the mines and in the countryside. In this paper, I try to show that the opposite was in fact the case, and that the science and government institutions for the regulation of silicosis and tuberculosis in white and black male workers were distinctively elaborated, and very largely successful in tracking and controlling the disease. This singular visibility, funded by the mines, stands in marked contrast with disease in general in South Africa, and forms a major part of the explanation for the very strong association of silicosis with mine work.
University of the Witwatersrand, WISER, Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa.
Keith Derek
KD
Breckenridge
D044383:Black People; D030881:Disclosure; D058872:Epidemics; D062665:Epidemiological Monitoring; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008906:Mining; D012829:Silicosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012830:Silicotuberculosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D013019:South Africa / Q000453:epidemiology; D044465:White People
South Africa; compensation; gold mining; silicosis; tuberculosis