South African Miners Take Lung Disease Fight to London

May 27, 2014- Courts in the United Kingdom may decide the compensation claim for thousands of sick and dying South African gold miners if talks to set up an industry fund to compensate them continue to stall.

Representatives of apartheid-era gold industry workers are in London to try to win justice for those suffering from the deadly lung condition silicosis – a type of work-related disease known as miner's lung.

Although the disease and the carcinogenic nature of silica dust has been known since the 19th century, conditions in gold mines may have left tens of thousands of workers affected. Recently, representatives of South Africa’s National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) were in the UK to pressure the mining company Anglo American to pay for the healthcare of former miners, as well as compensation for them and their families.

Carcinogenic silica dust builds over time in a sufferer's lungs. The disease can take between 10 to 40 years to develop, and there is no cure. The NUM believes there could be as many as 50,000 ex-miners with silicosis. It is possible through ventilation and proper clothing to protect people from silica dust in mines.

There are more than 3,500 former miners involved in a legal action against Anglo American in the London courts, while another action on behalf of 17,000 miners against 29 mining companies, including Anglo American, AngloGold Ashanti and Gold Fields, is under way in Johannesburg.

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