The Way from Dusty Death: Turner and Newall and the Regulation of Occupational Health in the British Asbestos Industry, 1890s-1970 (review)

In July 2002 I visited the now-closed Havelock asbestos mine at Piggs Peak in Swaziland. The mine was operated by the British company Turner & Newall (T&N) from 1939 to 1991. We know from internal company correspondence that during T&N's tenure, conditions at Havelock were such that people who lived at Piggs Peak developed asbestosis, an occupational disease, from environmental exposure. Today the waste dumps from the mine, which encircle the town, blow asbestos fiber over the primary school, which is less than one hundred meters away. In 1997 T&N was taken over by the U.S. company Federal Mogul; four years later Federal Mogul went into voluntary bankrupcy to avoid litigation, thereby saving T&N from being forced to clean up Havelock and to compensate former miners and their families suffering from asbestos-related disease.