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Walton Pantland
Workers at Cape Town’s Athlone power station are afraid. They’ve seen several of their colleagues die of asbestosis, and more are looking ill.
“You see a guy beginning to lose weight at work and you know what’s wrong, even if he doesn’t say anything,” says Trevor Rieb.
Rieb (47), who has worked on the power station’s turbine floor since 1979, tells how he and his co-workers had to cut away asbestos coverings on pipes, without using any protective equipment. They then used air hoses to blow the area clean, causing the deadly asbestos fibres to become airborne.
That was before the Occupational Safety Act was passed in 1987, introducing the first controls to industries using asbestos.
When the Mail & Guardian visited the power station last month, most workers were reluctant to speak openly. Rieb was the exception.
Two years ago, Terry Hudson was the first worker to break the silence when he told M&G how working with asbestos had left him with “breath like crackling paper”. He is now living on a pension of R750 a month.
“No one stood by Terry,” says Rieb. “We were too afraid to admit there was a problem. Now I realise we need to stand together on this. We’ll never win by battling alone. The council attacks and wins because there is no unity.”
It’s a sentiment Lance Veotti of the South African Municipal Worker’s Union (Samwu)agrees with. He says the council is not committed to solving the problem, and accuses it of “foot dragging”.
One of the biggest bones of contention is the fact that an affected worker will only be medically boarded once he has lost 40% of his lung capacity. Most affected workers have lost less than that, but Rieb, who was diagnosed with mild asbestosis, says “it doesn’t feel mild to me, it’s bloody sore”.
Workers can’t resign because they will lose their pensions and medical aid, so the union is campaigning to allow them to be redeployed elsewhere.
Samwu estimates that more than 100 workers are affected out of a total workforce of 428.
Three workers, who identified themselves as Chaka, Siyazi and Easy, said they experience a shortness of breath, and one said that when he inhales deeply, it feels as if there is broken glass in his lungs. They were all examined by Dr Neil White of the respiratory clinic at Groote Schuur, “but he said I’m all right”.
White is part of a task team appointed to address the asbestos issue. But, according to team member Professor Barney de Villiers of Stellenbosch University, the team meets “only when a problem arises”.
The union isn’t happy with the team and has campaigned unsuccessfully to have an independent group, the Industrial Health Research Group, appointed to monitor the situation.
Former employee Charles Kadalie (47) asks: “How can you get your own employer to do medical screening? The system at present is to protect the employer.”
One month after being passed by the medical officer for the council health department, Dr JR Wooley, Kadalie was diagnosed by a private doctor as having asbestosis.
He questions the willingness of the council’s doctors to detect asbestosis. The council claims he is fit to work, and is currently in breach of his contract of employment for refusing to return to work.
Asbestos is an excellent and economical insulator. It is no longer mined in South Africa, but has been used in homes and schools throughout the country. In the power station it is used for lagging pipes.
It becomes a problem when the material gets old or the buildings are demolished. This releases microscopic asbestos fibres into the air, which can then be breathed in. The fibres lodge in the lungs and cannot be removed.
This can cause a range of diseases, especially lung cancer and cancer of the lung lining, mesothelioma. Symptoms usually only appear 15 or more years after exposure.
According to the cancer association, 30% of cases of mesothelioma are caused by environmental factors alone. This has some worrying implications for the suburbs of Pinelands, Athlone and Langa, which are adjacent to the power station.
Power station manager Wouter Roggen said he sympathises with those who have been affected, but could not comment on the issue of compensation.
Last year, Environmental Science Services cleared the power station of dangerous asbestos. Subsequent testing has shown the environment to be fairly safe. But for those already affected, it’s too little too late.