The real blood diamonds
TB, Silicosis,
Asbestosis and De Beers
Foreword for the 2007
Second Edition of Glitter and Greed
by Janine Roberts,
Published by Disinfo Inc. of New
York.
Stop De Beers – appropriate sign outside its HQ in
Kimberley
The US
Clean Diamond Act, and the Kimberley Process, are supposed to guarantee that
the diamonds we buy are morally clean, not associated with any foul deed, or so
we have all understood it.
But,
according to the US General Accounting Office, in a report dated September
2006, these guarantees are little more than worthless illusions. There are no verifiable checks done on
diamonds. Most parcels of diamonds
are not even inspected. The so-called guarantees cannot be checked. So, how can
any shopper – or store – tell if their diamonds are clean?
And
moreover, as I recently learned in South Africa, De Beers currently mines
millions of the Òguaranteed cleanÓ diamonds we find in our stores in a
cheapskate careless manner that wrecks the lungs of its mineworkers, causing
incurable misery and death. I also have learnt that in Asia, where 90% of
these diamonds are finely cut for about 40c each, the most impoverished of the
cutters are being killed by silicosis, caused by unprotected exposure to
gem dust. [1]
Yet, as I
write, the mining industry, led by De Beers, is mostly concerned about the
impact of a new Leonardo DiCaprio movie The Blood Diamond. Emails and faxes about it are
flying agitatedly around De BeersÕ offices. They have organized among employees
a campaign called ÒProject HorizonÓ to combat the movieÕs message. But this
film deals only with diamonds sold to support former African wars –
something done since Cecil Rhodes, the founder of De Beers, sold them to fight
the Boers. The film does not highlight other issues – and so De Beers
feels it can ignore the misery in its mines and the cutting workshops, and even
what is happening with the Bushmen whose land it covets for its diamond wealth.
Today many
celebrities have joined with Survival International to help protect the
Bushmen, guardians of one of the earthÕs most ancient cultures, who were
recently evicted from much of their lands.[2] In December 2006 they won recognition
in a major legal battle of their rights to live on their ancient lands –
only to have the Botswana government immediately impose impossible
restrictions, severely limiting the numbers of those who can return, the water
they can have and what they can do. De Beers says this is nothing to do with it
[3]
– but right in the heart of these lands is a major diamond deposit that
it currently holds tight in deep freeze, awaiting the moment when its opportune
to mine. When it does, it plans to use vast quantities of water that it has
reported finding under the land where the government will not allow the Bushmen
a borehole.
Not far
from these lands, but over the border into South Africa, lies the giant De
BeersÕ Finsch diamond mine. Here
there is a very different but most dangerous problem. When I visited it first a shop steward told me, ÒMany of the
diamonds we mine are sitting in asbestos. We go underground with inadequate
masks. The ventilation is always breaking down. We are covered in asbestos
dust.Ó This shocked and horrified me. If true, it would give a lingering death
to many. But at that time I found De BeersÕ doctors kept a tight hold on the
minersÕ health records, so I could not verify this most serious allegation.
On the contrary, I
found De Beers denied that asbestos was any problem in its mines. In a recent statement it said:
ÒDespite the inherent risk and hazards of the mining industry, the diamond
mining sector remains one of the safest in terms of occupational disease rates.
The key areas of concern are well under control; lung diseases [are] very rare.
É Diseases due to respirable
air-borne dust such as silicosis, asbestosis and chemical inhalation remain
very rare.Ó
It also
stated: ÒCardio-pulmonary tuberculosis [is] well below community rate –
this is not a dust-associated disease in the diamond mining industry.Ó[4] This claim was extraordinary. Dust-related silicosis and TB
are horrifically epidemic in other South African mines. But from what it
claimed, diamond mining is surprisingly and uniquely safe,
Although I
had doubts about asbestos, I long accepted their assurances about TB and
silicosis. They were thus not mentioned in the first edition of this book. I
was glad these diseases were not present in their mines. I knew TB was
particularly dreadful, that it consumed the bodies of its victims and thus was
once called Òconsumption.Ó
But then in
late 2006, while helping make a film about diamonds in South Africa, I
interviewed Sandy Murray, the 28-year-old mother of two little girls aged 7 and
5, She had worked with her husband at the De BeersÕ Koffiefontein Diamond Mine
from 1996 to 2005, first as a mine secretary and then, from 2001 to 2005, as a
Health and Safety Officer.
When we
met, she had just recovered from having part of one of her lungs removed and
from the shock of learning her lungs are permanently scarred and gravely
weakened from mine dust and pulmonary TB. But she was very welcoming and acted
as if she had no disabilities. Only when pushed did she admit, ÒI can no longer
pick up and bathe the children. I
cannot even change the duvet on our bed.Ó
Her
diagnosis had been a total shock.
It takes years for such illnesses to develop, and yet every year at the
mine she had the mandatory chest x-ray and lung capacity test designed to pick
up the first sign of lung damage while it is easy to treat – and Òevery
year I was told I was clear.Ó
With
hindsight, she now remembers she frequently had flu-like symptoms that would
not go away, and that she was starting to feel increasingly weak. But she did
not get the cough that often indicates silicosis, nor had she coughed up blood
as often happens with TB. In early
2005 she was diagnosed with pneumonia – but still her now critical lung
damage was not picked up.
But in 2005
she moved to a new job at De Beers Head Office in Johannesburg and had another
medical check up. ÒThis was on a Thursday. On Friday they told me I had TB and
on Monday I was rushed into hospital to have part of my lungs removed.Ó
Her x-rays
had revealed large scars and other damage from mine dust, and that her lung
capacity had shrunk. It seemed the cuts had left her lungs open to infection
from TB.
She told me
how astonished she was at her critical diagnosis – for it is generally
said that white miners do not get TB. She explained, ÒTB is a shameful disease
that no white wants to admit to.Ó It is generally thought to only infect
impoverished blacks. ÒWhen I went to a hospital clinic, I was the only white
among 200 blacks.Ó
But when
she gathered her courage to tell what had happened, one by one close white
friends in the mining industry confessed what they had long kept hidden even
from her, that they too had TB in the family. (I have since found among South
African gold miners 18.8% of black workers had silicosis – and 17.6% of
white.[5] )
She then
sought access to her medical records for she wanted to know how long she had
carried TB, worried that she might have infected others.
Her records
revealed her lungs were perfect in 2001 – with a lung capacity test
result of 102%. But she was
shocked to find in 2002, a year after she took up her post as a Health and
Safety Officer and started going underground, her x-rays showed clear damage
– and during the next three years they had revealed more and more damage.
Thinking
back, she remembers how the De BeersÕ doctor put her x-rays away with no more
than a casual glance. It has since been discovered, I was told, that De Beers
did not employ qualified radiographers.
When she
looked at her lung capacity test results, the evidence was even clearer. Her
air capacity Òwas down to 89% in 2002. In 2004 it dropped to just 73%, and in
2005 to only 64%.Ó She added: ÒI also lost weight. I was 70 kg but dropped to 49 kg.Ó She is now only about 54
kg. The evidence was starkly clear – if anyone had looked. These were the
unmistakable symptoms of major lung disease. If these had been noted when they
first became obvious in 2002, she could have been medically treated with
success, removed from further danger, would not have needed an operation and
would still have her lungs intact.
A photo that Sandy had taken
for her family in case anything went wrong during her TB operation.
She will
now never recover what she has lost. Her remaining lungs are very damaged. She
simply cannot absorb the oxygen she needs. Yet she is only 28. When she gets
older, it may well get much harder. She remains highly vulnerable. With her
permanent lung damage she will not get a job at another mine.
She was
very surprised at how little exposure to diamond mine dust it had taken to make
her so dangerously ill. ÒI only went underground twice a week to check health
and safety matters. Only once a
week did I go down as far as the 52nd level (about 600 feet down) to where the
train dumped the ore for the crusher.Ó
But the
latter level was extremely dusty.
A senior contact at the Koffiefontein mine told me the dust extractor
installed on that level was Òconstantly getting its filters blocked and
breaking down.Ó This would cause the high peak dust exposure that can be the
critical element in lung disease.
Sandy asked
me: ÒBut what about the black mineworkers? They went underground for much longer than me and for 5 days
a week. If the company doctor did
not look at my x-rays, those of a white woman, he was scarcely likely to look
carefully at their x-rays.Ó
I would go
afterwards down to Koffiefontein to research the extent of lung damage there by
going house to house. I found one or two out of every five homes contained a
black mineworker with damaged lungs.
She also
told me: ÒWhen I changed my job within De Beers to come to Johannesburg, I lost
all my medical benefits. I had to pay myself for the operation to remove the
scar from my back and side and to help repair the muscle. It cost me 80,000
Rand ($7,500) for my medical treatment. De Beers did not help.Ó Only a small
compensation payment of around $5,000 is due to her under apartheid-era
legislation that protects mine owners from paying any kind of realistic
compensation.
After
listening to Sandy, it seemed to me most ironic that in the 2001 film Moulin
Rouge the beautiful
Satine, played by Nicole Kidman, sung in the last hours of her life ÒDiamonds Are A GirlÕs Best FriendÓ
immediately before she coughed blood and died of consumption.
With Sandy
MurrayÕs permission, I went to meet the expert who looked at her x-rays,
Professor Emeritus Tony Davies, one of South AfricaÕs most eminent specialists
in occupational health, and asked him to comment on what he had found.
He said
Sandy was very lucky to discover in time the great danger she was in. ÒMost mineworkers only get diagnosed
with TB when it is too late, within a few months of their death, so they get no
treatment at all. Many are not diagnosed even then, their TB is only discovered
at autopsy.Ó Retired mineworkers are rarely monitored, even though it is well
known that silicosis or TB might take 15 years or more to develop. It is simply presumed that, as these
diseases are fatal and have no cure, there is no value in monitoring their
potential victims.
He told me
that TB mostly starts in mineworkers after sharp particles from recently broken
silica have severely damaged both their lungs and immune systems. Our immune system will try to remove
any silica that gains entry to the lungs – and at low levels of dust it
often succeeds. Macrophage cells in the lungs will engulf any dust that has made
its way in. The lymphocyte T-cells also help to remove it. But if much dust
accumulates in the lungs, it will eventually overwhelm the immune cells. The silica will cuts up and scar the
lung cells, making them useless for absorbing oxygen. The lymph nodes supplying
vital immune system cells are frequently damaged.[6] Many immune cells die, thus releasing the dust they have
entrapped, allowing it to do yet more damage.
The victims
of silicosis will face years of night sweats and chills, violent bloody fits of
coughing, and the possible spread of infections to other parts of their bodies.
Autopsies have revealed virtual sand beds in mineworkersÕ lungs.
Tuberculosis
mycobacteria might then infect the wounded lung cells, as happened with Sandy,
Òwhile the macrophages are engaged elsewhere combating the dustÓ as Professor
Davies put it.
ÒHow common
are these bacteria?Ó I then asked. His answer was shocking: ÒBy the time they
are twenty years old, 100% of all South Africans have been exposed to TB.Ó But this did not mean they would all
get the illness called TB. I
learnt that TB is a rod-like bacterium that is normally harmless. It becomes
dangerous to mineworkers mostly after mine dust has done its damage, when Òthe
bacteria can multiply in the wounds the dust creates, gain immunity to drugs,
and is very difficult to kill.Ó[7]
This made
me wonder what did most of the damage, the bacteria or the dust. I thus asked: ÒWhat is the clinical
difference in patients between silicosis (in which no germ is involved) and
TB?Ó He answered, ÒVery little.
Except, there is more weight loss in TB.Ó
Freshly
broken silica spilled out by drill bits is especially good at cutting into the
lung cells. But sharp silica dust is not only in mines – it is in a wide
range of industries and in many environments. However it is rarely as thick as
in mine dust.
When I
asked Professor Davies, ÒHow common is TB in South Africa,Ó he replied, ÒExtremelyÓ and explained emphatically
how the other great epidemic, AIDS, Òis maskingÓ the true size of the TB
Òcatastrophe.Ó His research revealed that silicosis/TB has been killing
mineworkers from well before AIDS; that most mine drillers in Cornwall and the
Transvaal were dying in 1902 of mine dust or TB before they reached their 37th
birthday.[8]
The danger
had not gone away. He angrily told
me: ÒWe have 1000% more TB cases than the USA. It has 4 cases of TB per 100,000. We have 500 cases per 100,000 – minimum –
probably more like 750 new cases per 100,000 every year. Among our mineworkers it is far worse.
They have from 4,000 to 5,000 cases per 100,000 every year.Ó When a group of
migrant mine workers returning to Lesotho were tested, 60% had TB. ÒThere are
330,000 new cases of TB a year [in South Africa] with some 7 million active
cases.Ó
He
explained why Sandy said TB was thought of as a disease of Blacks. This was
because TB infection was more likely when our protective immune system is
lowered by malnutrition, lack of sanitation and great poverty. He added
angrily: ÒTB grows on a substrate of poor people.Ó
I asked
about the new resistant varieties of TB, but he said this is of minor
importance so far in view of the total size of the TB epidemic. Up until now
only about 75 fatalities in South Africa have been attributed to the resistant
bacteria.
I check the
latest South African governmental health statistics, those for 2001. These list TB as the biggest killer,
followed by pneumonia and then AIDS.
The AIDS figures are not broken down into the Òopportunistic infectionsÓ
but TB is also by far the biggest killer in AIDS cases. TB is characterized by
weight loss, as is AIDS. Silicosis also destroys immune cells. The end result
is the same.
De Beers
claims the cases of TB among its workers are solely due to AIDS. It stated: ÒA total of 28 cases were
diagnosed during 2001 – 33 per cent up on the previous year. This was
expected and parallels the AIDS epidemic.Ó Apparently it thought imprudent sex
was solely to blame – and not the mine dust. This made me think rather
cynically that, as companies are not generally sued for viral infections, it
was no wonder that De Beers blamed viruses rather than mine dust for the ills
of its workers.
As
Professor Davies had worked extensively with mineworkers, I asked him what he
knew of the dust in diamond mines. He hesitated before answering but then
said: ÒTwo hundred retired diamond
mineworkers from the De Beers Premier mine were tested – and every single
one of them had clinical asbestosis.Ó
He added:
ÒSome of might have had dual exposure by having also worked in asbestos mines,
but some firmly maintained that they had only worked at Premier.Ó
Professor
Davies, a scientist who had specialized in diagnosing and fighting asbestosis,
was confirming my worst suspicions. Asbestosis has a reputation of being even
more deadly than silicosis.
His words
made me check on the constituents of kimberlite, the greenish diamond bearing
rock named after Kimberley, the town where De Beers was founded. I found it contains much serpentine, a
silicate, sometimes over 30%. Olivine is also a major constituent – and
is nearly identical chemically. It can turn into serpentine when weathered. I
also found this serpentine is present in the mines in a fibrous crystalline
form better known as crystolite or white asbestos.
I knew
white asbestos is said to be less dangerous than blue or brown, for it does not
linger in our cells for decades after a single exposure. But, what if workers
are constantly exposed to it as might happen in diamond mines? I thus asked Professor Davies:
ÒIs white asbestos very dangerous?Ó He answered emphatically, ÒIt is a serious
health hazard. It is like glass fiber.Ó
It will easily penetrate lung cells. He reminded me that, although white asbestos was once
commonly used to lag pipes and for buildings, today it is considered so
dangerous that workers must remove it in full masks and protective suits.
Neerad
Reddy, the film producer working with me, then asked Professor Davies: ÒCould
Sandy Murray have been exposed to white asbestos?Ó He answered: ÒPossibly.Ó
When I looked later at her X-rays, they seemed to my non-expert eye very
similar to those I had seen of asbestos victims – but there can be no
clear distinction in x-rays when both silica and asbestos are present.
Since my
meeting with Professor Davies, I have located other research that confirms the
presence of asbestos dust in diamond mines. The South African Centre for
Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) produced in 2000 a paper entitled: The
positive identification of asbestos and other fibers in the mining of
kimberlite deposits.
When they sought to evaluate how dangerous this was, they found the dust was so
thick in the diamond mine they visited that they could not accurately count the
numbers of fibers present![9]
I have also
found that, while other forms of asbestos are more likely to cause cancer,
white asbestos does more damage to the immune system. ÒChrysotile expressed a
greater degree of cytotoxicity towards populations of macrophages.Ó[10]
White Asbestos (chrysotile) crystals
It was as
the De Beers mineworkers at Finsch had reported; diamonds were sometimes found
sitting in asbestos. De Beers had
long been aware of this. They set up a laboratory to study the danger from
asbestos fibers in their mines some twenty years ago in 1996.
But
nevertheless De Beers maintains the dust in its mines is not doing any damage
– and that any cases of asbestosis among its mineworkers are more likely
to be caused by exposure elsewhere. ÒDuring 2001, four cases of nonmalignant
asbestos pleural plaque were identified. Background environmental and previous
employment exposures to asbestos outside De Beers operations are the most
commonly associated factors in the development of these lesions.Ó
But most
extraordinarily, De Beers also maintains that its dust is so safe, that normal
dust control methods are unnecessary in diamond mining. It thus instructs its
mineworkers to break up the diamond-bearing kimberlite rock by ÒDry Drilling,Ó
without spraying water to suppress dust – as is legally mandatory in
other mines.
But then I
discovered scientific research that stunned me and totally undermined this
claim by De Beers.
It was a
report dated 2000 from the South African governmentÕs Safety in Mines Research
Advisory Committee. This is, to the best of my knowledge, the only major study
ever completed into the safety implications of dry drilling in underground
diamond mines.[11] It examined three major ÒpipeÓ and two fissure diamond mines.
It did not say who owned these mines, but it was not too hard to guess. All the
great South African pipe mines are owned by De Beers.
Its report
is however limited in its scope. It states that they were not able to look into
the presence of [asbestos] fibers in the mines – but they did look for
the presence of dangerous levels of silica dust and for the use of dust removal
techniques that would safeguard the health of the mineworkers.
It began
with the bald statement, ÒDry Mining is not permissible under South African
mining legislation.Ó Dust-suppressant water jets are normally mandatory. It then explained that De Beers and
smaller diamond mining companies had secured legal exemptions from this safety
ban by claiming that the dust in diamond mines is harmless and because Òwater
has been found to have undesirable effects on Ôblue groundÕ (unweathered
kimberlite) causing swelling or disintegration.Ó
The
investigators were skeptical regarding the latter claim, as their observations
seemed to suggest otherwise. ÒAlthough dry mining is practiced because it is
claimed that water has adverse effects on the blue ground É natural underground
water sources did not appear to have had any deleterious effects on the
kimberlite vein or on the production levels [in one of 5 mines inspected that
naturally had water in it].Ó
They
discovered that ÒsludgeÓ was
created by drilling kimberlite in 1960 reports and deduced that wet mining was
previously practiced. They also noted water damage seemed very slow. According
to a paper they cited, water could affect drill holes if these Òare left
standing for more than a month.Ó They concluded the exemption from wet drilling
Òwarrants further investigation.Ó
The
softness De Beers refers to in kimberlite is purely relative. It is a hard
greenish crystalline rock that can be thoroughly soaked in water for days
without having the slightest sign of deterioration. I found it remains a rock
that I would hate to have thrown at me. Apparently months of exposure to the
weather are needed to make some parts of kimberlite deteriorate. But the
relative ÒsoftnessÓ of kimberlite is no joking matter. It is the only
justification De Beers gives for its decision to use the dangerous dry mining
practices banned in other mines.
Despite
De BeersÕ claims, the investigators found levels of silica were far above the
official safety limit of 0.1 grams of silica per cubic meter of air in all the
visited diamond mines. They concluded: ÒThe results clearly indicate that
ventilation on its own is not very effective in controlling the exposure of
personnel to high dust concentrations.Ó
Four
of the five diamond mines it investigated had consistently more than 5% silica
in their dust and were judged unsafe.
As for the one that generally had Òless than 5% silica,Ó this had in
places dust containing silica Òup to 53 grams per cubic meter of air.Ó Such
peak levels are notoriously liable to cause silicosis.
There is
however some doubt over what level of constant silica exposure is safe. Another
study showed: ÒWorkers developed silicosis while exposed to a quartz
concentration [of 0.053 mg/m3]
below the recommended occupational exposure limit (OEL) of 0.1 mg/m3.Ó It concluded: ÒThis accords with a
mounting body of evidence that an OEL of 0.1 mg/m3
is not protective against silicosis.Ó[12]
Silica dust
accumulates in the lungs until it reaches dangerous levels – and it may
not take long for the one gram to accumulate that carries a definite danger of
deadly illness. One paper said:
ÒClinical symptoms may develop within 6 months of first exposure.Ó [13]
As for
the two ÒfissureÓ diamond mines the investigators examined, they reported, ÒAs
a result of the largely uncontrolled dust generation in fissure kimberlite
mining operations, dust concentrations in excess of 100 mg/m3 were measured in some instances. This
in turn led to very high pollutant indices and, coupled with a sometimes high
quartz content in the dust, yielded very high total toxin indices.Ó
The
investigators also noted transporting dry ore underground produced unacceptably
high levels of dust. They further observed that the dust hoods on mining drills
frequently let dust blow into the faces of operators. Even when these hoods
worked, they frequently proved useless, with their filters getting blocked by
dust, and consequently being emptied out or blown clean locally within the
mine, making the tunnels and drill faces extremely dusty.
Ventilation openings into
the De BeersÕ Koffiefontein mineÕs underground workings – in the pit
among heaps of dusty and dangerous weathered kimberlite.
The
investigators continued: ÒThe situation is greatly exacerbated where workings
are series-ventilated. In such instances highly polluted air exiting from one
working place can become the intake air to the next workplace in the
ventilation sequence. This then leads to the superimposition of one dense dust
cloud on another and to increasingly unacceptable workplace conditions.Ó
The report
also noted there are alternative ways to remove dust, but the diamond mining
companies had put little effort into investigating these. Foam can be used and
has proved 95% effective in removing dust. Fine mist sprays will remove up to 70% of asbestos fibers
present. But they found none of these methods used – and asked why.
It also seems these working
conditions are violations of the Mining Code, despite De BeersÕ exemptions.
Richard Spoor, a South African lawyer specializing in mining law, told me,
ÒEver since the Mines and Works Act No 27 was promulgated in 1956, the law has
required that Ôevery part of a mine where persons are required to travel and
work shall be properly ventilated to maintain safe and healthy environmental
conditions for the workmen and that the ventilating air shall be such that it
will dilute and render harmless any inflammable or noxious gases and dust in
the ambient air.ÓÕ
De BeersÕ repeated
assurances that the dust is safe in its mines have also had the unfortunate
effect of putting their minersÕ lives into greater jeopardy by convincing them
that the dust danger is minimal. They thus sometimes remove the simple cloth
masks provided – for these are black with dust in twenty minutes, hot,
uncomfortable and ill fitting around broad African noses – and why bother
when De Beers says the dust rarely causes harm?
Elias
Knolomba, an underground drill operator, worked at the same mine as Sandy
Murray. He remembers her well and
said she was very popular among the mineworkers. He was shocked when I told him of her illness, exclaiming:
ÒShe only went underground a day or two a week.Ó He went underground five days a week – and now has
dust- damaged lungs. In his home in Koffiefontein he showed me the large scar
his lung operation left on his back and side. He half-jokingly wondered:
ÒPerhaps De Beers deliberately allows the dust to be thick to stop us from
seeing the diamonds and being tempted to steal them?Ó
He worked
for years drilling in copper mines before he came to Koffiefontein. He now
deeply regretted his move. ÒMy lungs were good when I came here. If I had known
how bad the dust was in De Beers diamond mines, I would have stayed in the
copper mines. É At times the dust is so thick that we could not see our hands
– let alone the diamonds.Ó Often his mask did not fit or came off. ÒIt was not shaped to fit African
noses.Ó In 1999 he had his lung operation and now, at the age of 56, he could
not walk into town without needing to use an oxygen pump.
What he had
to tell me about De BeersÕ practices shocked me even more. He described what
happened when the official dust inspector came to the mine for his regular
scheduled checks. ÒDe Beers always knew when he was coming. The day before he
appears, it shut down the mine and ordered all surfaces washed with water to
remove the dust. The same thing happened when Nicky Oppenheimer, the head of De
Beers, came to visit.Ó It seems De Beers did not always regard water as
ÒdangerousÓ in its mines.
The main entrance and De
Beers slogan at the Koffiefontein diamond mine where Sandy Murray and Elias
KnolombaÕs lungs were critically damaged.
SandyÕs office was by the diamond ore heaped in the background.
Gem
diamonds are a luxury. Their
extraction can never justify the death of one mineworker. But, even if they
have to be mined, the dangers to which these diamond mineworkers are subjected
is inexcusable. The dust that wrecks their lungs can be safely and economically
removed – and is in most Western mines
The
mineworkers at Koffiefontein told me: ÒDe Beers treats us as tools to be thrown
away when worn out.Ó Richard Spoor said employers have Òpaid no regard to this
fundamental obligation to [look after] their workers and as a result thousands
of their employees have been killed and maimed after contracting preventable
occupational lung diseases. The
wives and children of these mineworkers have themselves been plunged into
poverty and unrelenting hardship by the loss of the support of their husbands
and fathers.Ó
He
continued: ÒThe apartheid system made it possible for the gold mining industry,
quite literally, to use, consume and discard black workers as if they were just
another commodity.Ó What he said of gold mining in South Africa can be equally
said of diamond mining today.
Thus,
despite De BeersÕ denials, silica is often present in high concentrations in
diamond mines – and asbestos fibers are also present. Both are highly dangerous. The damage
they do to lungs slowly suffocates their victims, killing them with silicosis
and asbestosis, or with deadly cancers and TB.
The truth
is that diamond mining, as practiced by De Beers, is not harmless but uniquely
dangerous. In their mines the dangers of silica are compounded by the dangers
of asbestos fibers. There is no effective dust control, with no use of water to
suppress dust as in other mines.
White
asbestos fibers are long, curved and far thinner than a human hair. They drift
invisibly in the air and can penetrate deep into the lungs. Because of their
tiny size, our lungs cannot expel them. [14] When millions are present, our lungs cannot cope. Our immune
system produces an acid to try to dissolve them when they cut into our lung
cells – but this acid can also deeply scar the lungs. This damage,
Òasbestosis,Ó may eventually become so severe that the lungs can no longer
function.
Asbestosis
can also cause an aggressive and very deadly lung cancer, mesothelioma, which
kills when you might be feeling safe, some 35 years after asbestos exposure.
After this cancer is diagnosed, there is normally only a Òmedian survival rateÓ
of 11 months. Pulmonary TB is
linked more to silicosis than to asbestosis, and mesotheliomas are mostly
linked to asbestosis – but why is not yet understood.
The initial
ÒprimeÓ symptom of asbestosis is said to be Òslow insidious shortness of breath
on exertionÓ and not the coughing common in silicosis and TB cases. I could not
help noting that this was like SandyÕs symptoms. Two-thirds of asbestosis cases
also have Òrales,Ó a crackling noise in the lower lung heard towards the end of
an indrawn breathe. Some medical authorities say asbestosis is easily
distinguished from silicosis by x-ray because it forms long scars in the lower lungs
while silicosis forms small lumps in the upper lung – but what happens
when both are present? Both are reported to cause ÒminersÕ lung,Ó otherwise
known as pneumonoconiosis, and both cause great damage to the immune system
cells that protect our lungs.[15]
As for TB,
it seems it has many contributing causes. It is the leading cause of death in
many developing countries, currently killing more adults each year than all
other tropical diseases combined. It also orphans more children than any other
infectious disease.[16] But it is rarely so deadly as it is among South African
mineworkers.
The AIDS
and TB epidemics are also inextricably conflated, it seems, because TB bacteria
may falsely test as if HIV in the HIV test – as has been established by
Dr. Myron Essex and his colleagues from Harvard University. Dr. Essex later won the top US medical
research award, the Albert Lasker, with Dr. Robert Gallo, for his work on
AIDS.
Essex wrote
in the Journal of Infectious Diseases that the HIV test and the Western Blot Òshould be interpreted with caution
when screening individuals infected with M. tuberculosis or other mycobacterial
species. ÉThis data suggests that mycobacterial cell wall antigens may well
share common epitopes with HIV.Ó[17]
As the TB
mycobacteria are present in some two billion humans worldwide, according to the
estimate of the World Health Organization, and mycobacteria are present in most
water supplies, this makes it more difficult to estimate the true size of the
AIDS epidemic.
In 2004 one
third of all South African mineworkers had active TB at the time of their
death. But the link between dust and TB was masked by these false positive
tests, as if HIV had caused the dust driving through the De Beers mines, as if
it had caused the cuts and scars in minersÕ lungs. For them the first measure
needed was dust prevention. Only this could stop the epidemic.[18]
In
addition, the careful reading of TB research papers reveals, as one scientist
noted, that the blaming of TB exclusively on bacteria found in diseased lungs,
as done by many since the time of the 19th century discoverer of
this bacteria, Dr. Robert Koch,
Òmay have contributed to the delay in the recognition of mining dusts as
the causes of occupational lung disease.Ó It is now known that, ÒThe
development of the disease mainly depends on cumulative dust exposure –
although clinical symptoms may develop within six months of first exposure É
death from respiratory causes normally occurs within months of diagnosis.Ó[19]
The
conclusion must be that much of this terrible widespread lung disease epidemic
among mineworkers, if correctly diagnosed, could have been prevented, albeit at
some financial cost to the mining companies. It could be stopped by the
effective removal of the dust at the point where it is created. Dr. Rafael de
la Hoz concluded a paper on TB and Silicosis by saying: ÒThe fundamental
importance of measures to control dust and to adequately protect all workers
cannot be over-emphasized.Ó
De BeersÕ
immoral failure to control the toxic dust in its mines has exposed its
mineworkers to great dangers.
Yes, there
really are blood diamonds. But only a very few them are traded to support
wars. They are rather the millions
of gems splattered by the blood coughed up by TB victims, by the blood shed in
lungs, by the blood of greed. It is now the production of these deeply tainted
diamonds in South Africa that urgently needs to be cleansed.
The really
sad thing about all this is that it is all so utterly unnecessary. Diamonds are
luxuries and cannot be worth such misery. As the governmental Òdry miningÓ
safety report stated, there are many ways to control dust that De Beers could
have used instead of water and did not. We will never know how many lives this
negligence has cost – and I too now suspect that De Beers benefits by
having its diamonds hidden in dust.
It is also
very regrettable that this is not the only way that the recent actions of De
Beers have suggested stark greed and miserliness.
In 2006 De
Beers began closing the legendary great diamond mines in Kimberley on which its
fortune was based, auctioning their equipment, throwing thousands out of work.
Foreign companies had been brought in to clean up whatever loose diamonds
remained in the tips by the mines, as if no locals could be trusted. De Beers
is also abandoning its mining activities in Koffiefontein.
Koffiefontein workers
protest De BeersÕ plans and ask for part ownership of mine
It is not
that these mines had suddenly run out of diamonds. In 2004 the Kimberley mines
had produced two million carats – a near record. It was perhaps more the
fulfillment of a threat. Just months earlier, when the South African government
put forward a law forcing mining companies to give more back to the community,
De Beers had publicly threatened – if you pass this law, we will close
mines.
Up until
now the ANC government has dealt remarkably gently with the mining magnates.
Thus eleven years after apartheid ended, the Oppenheimer family still
effectively controls much of the South African economy, including De Beers, the
mining giant Anglo American and about 600 other companies. Some black
politicians are now benefiting from the Black Empowerment legislation –
but the vast majority of citizens have still benefited little from the diamond
wealth of their country.
Ironically,
De Beers, the company that helped found apartheid, has been reaping rich
rewards from the ending of apartheid.
Its representatives can threaten to desert diamond mines in South Africa
because they now travel with President Mbeki, the leader of South Africa,
securing resources from which they would have been banned as representatives of
an apartheid company. They thus now hold a large diamond deposit in the Central
African Republic, secured behind a high fence, and are negotiating in the Congo
for further diamond deposits.
Housing for the poor at
Koffiefontein - water is from the shared tap.
When I went
to Koffiefontein I found the reports that the mine was being closed as
uneconomical to be highly misleading. What is happening is that De Beers is
attempting to escape its social responsibilities by subcontracting the mine to
a smaller mining company, Petra Diamonds, which will presumably selling its
product in ways De Beers likes. In
turn Petra Diamonds is ÒsubcontractingÓ migrant black workers, and former black
employees of De Beers, to work in the mine at one third to one half of the
wages previously paid by De Beers. This is starvation money – but those
that have accepted this deal asked me Òwhat else can we do?Ó Many workers are
nevertheless refusing to work for Petra.
Under an
agreement negotiated by the MineworkersÕ Union with De Beers, a mineworker who
drives a front end loader would be paid around 5,000 to 6,000 Rand (US$700 to $800) a month, but after
deductions for health care and pensions, house loans and unemployment, his
take-home-pay might well be only a half or third of this. But under Petra
– it seems health care has become an utterly unaffordable extra.
The
citizens of Koffiefontein, a town with practically no other employment than the
mine, are seemingly being punished by De Beers for government legislation it
does not like by having their wages slashed to around $200 a month. This is
despite food costing much the same as in the West.
De BeersÕ apartheid era
housing for Koffiefontein mining families
still in use – extremely hot in summer.
The
mineworkers who are trying to fight this have asked their government to help
them gain a share in the mine, possibly 28%, and a partnership with a different
mining company than Petra, but the government has told them they would first
have to raise $10 million, a figure well below the value of the diamonds
estimated to be still in the mine, but one they are finding nearly impossible
to reach.
Currently,
Petra, under a contract from De Beers, is keeping the mine in production, still
mining kimberlite, while the separation out of diamonds is put on hold until
the claim of the mineworkers is settled.
Vast amounts of already
mined diamond-rich ore – and source of dust storms – on townÕs
edge at Koffiefontein. Dust from here blows over the local schools.
I was taken
to see the mine by its former shop steward, Joseph Botalilo, whom I had first
met in 1996. He showed me the dirt road alongside the main mine, next to a
sheer 500-foot-high cliff down to the mine bottom. On the other side of the
road was a 100-foot-high, half a mile long tip. He told me this contained
millions of tonnes of diamond-rich rock stored for future diamond separation.
The road then reached a deep fissure in the mine wall and turned left along it,
to where a second pit was being excavated.
De Beers mines diamonds deep
below the floor of this pit.
Diamonds are in the blue kimberlite rock. The fissure leading to the
newly opened pit is the brown streak just left of center. Stored Kimberlite is
beyond – the private game park is the flat land going off to the right.
ÒSee that
fissure? That is a diamond rich
dyke, joining the two pits together. Now look past this second pit, and out to
the horizon.Ó I could see a wide
area of grass dotted with trees, and a small cloud of smoke far away.
ÒThat is a
De Beers private game park. We think it is only there to hide diamonds, to keep
deposits out of sight. It is lined with a fence that is constantly patrolled by
security people. See that smoke?
That is where a deposit of diamond rock has been mined – it could
be a continuation of the same dyke. We believe other dykes go out in other
directions. A black child picked up a diamond right over there.Ó He indicates an area beyond the fences.
Part of the heavy waste De
Beers dumped on a childrenÕs playing area after a black child found a diamond
on this spot – to ensure,
according to locals, that no one else did likewise
Before I go
further, let me emphasize how suspicious I found to be the De Beers published
statistics for the diamond content of its great South African mines. It says they all have between 0.5 and 7
carats per 100 tonnes. The Kimberley mines had officially in 2004 just 1.8
carats per hundred tones while Koffiefontein had only 0.6 carats per hundred
tonnes. As a carat is a fifth of a gram, this is a tiny diamond content. On
such figures they justify the high prices they charge for the diamonds
extracted.
Yet in
Canada the large Diavik mine says it has an average of 3.9 carats per tonne,
not per hundred tonnes – making it over 400 times richer. Australia has
twice as many per tonne as Diavik, while Russia has, at the Grib deposit near
Archangel, an incredible 69 carats per tonne according to the latest reports,
apparently 6,900 times more than South Africa. But none of these mines plan to
challenge the high prices De Beers sets based on the rarity of the diamonds in
its own mines. They all value the great profits these prices bring.
So, why are
De BeersÕ mines so incredibly much poorer than others? Or, has De Beers grossly under-declared
its dust-enshrouded production for a hundred years? It is thus, in the
circumstances, extremely important that the South African government geologically
ÒauditsÓ De BeersÕ mines. If it does not, it will never be able to verify
whatever De Beers tells it.
Slogan on De BeersÕ vehicle
in the Koffiefontein mine.
Even in
Johannesburg persuasive evidence of De BeersÕ meanness was ever present. I interviewed two black diamond
cutters. Both had invested in setting up a diamond factory. But in both cases
the machines were idle. One factory had been idle for two years. Both were now
facing ruin.
Ernest
Malakoane owns one of these factories. He is the Chairperson of the United
Diamond Association of South Africa (UDASA), representing some 200 black
diamond cutters and dealers, all finding it difficult to purchase diamonds from
De Beers. ÒEvery time we approach Diamdel (the wholly-owned De Beers rough
diamond trading subsidiary), supposedly set up to supply us with diamonds, we
are told there are no diamonds available. We get the chaff and crumbs –
if we are lucky.Ó
He
explained: ÒDiamonds can be exported free of export duty if they cannot be sold
in South Africa. So we are offered parcels of diamonds with very high reserve
prices.
When we
cannot meet these prices they set, they can export the diamonds duty-free. Thus
nearly all South African gems are sold uncut and duty-free to foreigners.Ó This
is despite diamonds being produced in the mines at relatively low costs.
But
why were there few diamonds available to cut in South Africa? It was not that they were being
out-competed by India. Some 85% of the worldÕs gem diamonds were cut there, as
I mentioned above, for about 40c each in 2006, but these are mostly the poorer
and smaller diamonds. Under apartheid the government had made sure the best
diamonds were kept in South Africa to be cut by whites. Joseph Kalomere,
another African with an idle diamond cutting factory, told me: ÒWe could
compete against the world if we could cut the same stones as were given to
whites We produce 14 million carats a year, and many are fine diamonds. Why
should Africans be poor when our continent is so rich?Ó
Malakoane in his diamond-deprived
cutting factory.
Malakoane
continued: ÒThe government says it will set up a state trader who has 10% of
the production to sell to usÉ but when?
This will not happen. We are dead. We have waited already ten years. Life is now tougher for us than it was
immediately after apartheid ended. The police use entrapment methods to make
sure we donÕt acquire diamonds from unlicensed diggers. Our government is
irresponsible when it comes to this industry. They rely for information on De
Beers.Ó
I asked
about De BeersÕ plans to move their international center to Botswana. ÒIt is
easier for them there. The citizens of Botswana find it even harder to get
licenses. They cannot touch diamonds. The San Bushmen are being driven from
their lands. All power is with De Beers.Ó
I spoke
also in Johannesburg to rich white diamond merchants dealing in goose-egg-size stones. For them rough diamond
supply seemed no problem. I told them of the Koffiefontein mineworkers who
could become the first black owners of a major South African diamond mine
– if they could raise $10 million dollars. I asked why could they not go
into partnership with the mineworkers and finance this deal?
The answer
I got was that they had looked into this, but giving mineworkers a 28% interest
in the mine was a Òproblem.Ó ÒIt complicated the deal.Ó In any case, how could
they invest when ÒDe Beers said the mine was running out of diamonds?Ó But it
turned out that they had not obtained an independent assessment of the mineÕs
diamond content. No one would buy a house with so few checks but they
apparently were not willing or able to challenge De BeersÕ word. This seemed to
be an impossible quandary. With no independent assessment, an historical deal
– under which black South Africans could for the first time run their own
mine and cut their own stones – was in very deep trouble.
I spoke
also to Ernie Bum, the President of the World Diamond Council. When I described to him the health
conditions in major diamond mines, he shifted uncomfortably, then said firmly
that, if these were so bad, the diamond industry would have to put it right.
He was
enthusiastic about diamonds, and wanted Johannesburg to become another Antwerp,
a major international diamond-trading center. If extra supplies of diamonds made
the international price of diamonds drop, so be it. ÒMore people could afford
them and the market will grow. Everyone should have the chance to enjoy
diamonds. I love crafting fine gems, making a beautiful stone. People will
always want to buy them.Ó
He
regretted that De Beers had recently chosen to set up its international center
in Botswana. He asked why ÒDe Beers has done for South Africa so much less than
they did for themselves. They could have built a healthy industry here
employing over a hundred thousand.Ó
Louis
Lipchin, one of the most experienced merchants in the Johannesburg Diamond
Centre, echoed his words. ÒThe
Oppenheimer family has the power, the ingenuity and the talent to turn things
around. They could earn much more respect by doing so than they have now.Ó
Louis Lipchin at work.
But when I
asked about the Kimberley Process that is supposed to have removed Òblood
diamondsÓ from the market, Lipchin was firm. ÒIt has only benefited De Beers. I
feel the Kimberley Process enables De Beers to restrict the access of others to
diamonds, to make it much more difficult for others to get access to the better
classes of diamonds. The NGOs
pushing this have got it all wrong. All they are doing is helping De Beers
maintain its control over the market.Ó Every diamond merchant I spoke to said
much the same.
A month
earlier, in September 2006, the US General Accountability Office (GAO) had
reported that the United States rarely inspects diamond imports – and
inexplicably exports millions more diamonds than it officially imports, despite
not mining any itself! This strongly suggests that diamonds are being imported
illegally into the US, making a mockery of the Pure Diamond legislation. Finally, it was evident from its report
that the Kimberley Process simply misses its target, by focusing mostly on
Òillicit diamondsÓ produced without proper paperwork, rather than the far fewer
Òconflict diamondsÓ linked to wars.
As I was
finishing this research, to my surprise I learnt of major protests over diamond-caused
silicosis happening not in the mines, but the great Asian diamond cutting
centers, where the vast majority of rough gem diamonds are transformed into
glittering jewels. Workers are
fighting for dust protection, and telling hear-breaking stories of the many
cutters now permanently disabled by the very gems they cut.
When a
rough diamond is cut and polished, from half to two thirds of its weight is
turned into dust. This is razor-sharp and the hardest dust of all. It can make
mincemeat of soft lung tissues. I have seen and photographed many
diamond-cutting workshops with children working in them and no dust
protection. Their walls are
sometimes black with diamond dust.
I have also
visited diamond-cutting factories in Mumbai where dust suppression methods are
installed – so it is not all bad. But in the workshops where the poorest
work, or where the owners are most greedy – such as in one large plant I
visited that had been opened by the Oppenheimer family – there is no dust
suppression. The workers live in the dust. The problem has long been hidden by two facts. First, young
workers are preferred as they have the sharpest eyes. Second, it can take up to
30 years for the silicosis to develop after the dust is inhaled and the damage
done.
Again, as
in the mines, this is simply a crime of greed. It shows a lack of respect and of care, for excellent dust
control technology is available. The diamond merchant owners apparently donÕt
want to diminish the profits they make by paying for it.
As for the
Kimberley process, it does not police for such abuses. In any case, in South
Africa I learnt how it is very easy to give any diamond the right paperwork, if
you have the right connections. Diamonds of uncertain or undeclared providence
are imported unofficially into South Africa, mixed with locally produced
diamonds, and then falsely and undetectably certified as ÒcleanÓ under the
Kimberley Process.
Yes, the
Kimberley process has failed. Real blood diamonds are still traded by the tens
of millions – but we have been looking for most of them in all the wrong
places. Today they are mostly the blood-splashed diamonds produced without any
care for the health of the African mineworkers and the Asian diamond cuuters,
without any respect for them.
The only good
news is that it is easy to remove this particular bloodstain from diamonds. It
only needs investment in good, efficient dust control measures, in proper
compensation and medical help for all miners, even the retired. But to do this we need to change attitudes
that have been present in the diamond industry for a hundred years.
Until now, the mine-owners and
purchasers of diamonds have seemingly been so blinded by their sparkle that
they have not noticed the corpses beneath. It is time to open their eyes.
A note to my American readers, it
is easier for you to put pressure on De Beers now. For decades it operated
through third parties in the US, fearing legal action for running a
price-fixing cartel. But in 2004 the US Government ended its legal pursuit of
De Beers after the latter pleaded guilty to criminal charges for price-fixing
industrial diamonds, paying a fine of less than $10 million. In 2005 De Beers
paid a substantially greater civil penalty, $250 million, in a private class
action in a New York court, again for overcharging for diamonds.
One would think a company with a
criminal record would have things tougher – but De Beers took its
conviction as an opportunity for it to shamelessly enter the American market in
its own name by opening glittering stores in New York and Beverly Hills. It
plans some twenty other US stores as part of a worldwide chain. However this
expansion did not start entirely smoothly. At the opening of the New York store
Survival International was joined by Gloria Steinem and other celebrities in a
protest on behalf of the dispossessed Bushmen of Botswana whose land contains
diamonds now held by De Beers.
These luxury stores are currently
featuring a new concept – ÒJourney.Ó De BeersÕ idea is that couples
ÒjourneyÓ by purchasing three-gem rings with bigger and bigger diamonds every
few years – under the slogan that Òwith every step, love growsÓ –
and so do De BeersÕ profits. The
company hopes to make these a lucrative Òcultural imperative,Ó as it did
previously with the diamond engagement ring.
But
one place these will not sell is to De BeersÕ own mineworkers. They laughed when I asked them if they
could ever see themselves buying a diamond. They could not afford even a fragment. I very much hope my
readers, and those who are thinking of buying a diamond, or trading one, will
do all in their power to end the atrocious treatment of these workers. I ask also that the South African
government act soon to stop these abuses. It is time for the diamonds of Africa
to be used to enrich the African nations, not to impoverish and kill them.
More Koffiefontein workers
in protest in 2006 against De
Beers attempt to sell ownership of mine to another company, ignoring their
interest in sharing ownership.
[1] For
details of silicosis danger in gem cutting see website http://www.jewelrycampaign.net/eng/index.htm
[2] For
details of plight of Bushmen see website http://www.boycottdebeers.com
[3] See
Mail and Guardian article on Botswana and Bushmen on website http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=293251&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa
[4] De
BeersÕ Statement on Social Sustainability. Undated but on
De BeersÕ website in 2006.
[5] J.C.A.
Davies. Silicosis and TB among miners in South Africa during the 20th
Century. Printed paper given to author by J.C.A. Davies.
[6] Rafael
de la Hoz; V Clinical Aspects: TB and Silicosis. pp 525-530.
[7] Digby
F. Warner and Valerie Mizrahi. Tuberculosis Chemotherapy: the influence of
bacillary stress and damage response pathways on drug efficacy.
[8] J.C.A.
Davies. Op. Cit.
[9] The
regulatory authority OSHA proposes a safety limit of 100,000 long fibers per
cubic meter of workplace air.
[10] A. Wright, K. Donaldson, and J.M. Davis.
Cytotoxic effect of asbestos on macrophages in different activation states. Environ
Health Perspect. 1983 September; 51: 147–152.
[11] Safety
in Mines Research Advisory Committee: Final Report: Investigation of dry
drilling in the mining of kimberlite deposits and pollutant control during such
drilling. A.D. Unsted Research Agency: CSIR: Division of
Mining Technology. Project number: OTH410, July 2000.
[12] Silicosis
Prevalence and Exposure Response Relationships in South African Goldminers. R. I. Ehrlich,a
G. J. Churchyard,b J. M. teWaterNaude,a L. Pemba,b K.
Dekker,c M. Vermeis,c N. W. White,a J. E.
Myers.a
aOccupational
and Environmental Health Research Unit, University of Cape Town, South
Africa; bAurum Health Research, Orkney, South Africa; cAnglogold,
Orkney, South Africa.
[13] Rafael
de la Hoz. Op. Cit. pp 526-530.
[14]
Casarrett & Doull, Toxicology (2001), pp
520-522.
[15] Wright
et al. Op. Cit.
[17]
Kashala et al. Journal of
Infectious Diseases 1994. pp 169, 296-304.
[18] Rafael
de la Hoz. Op. Cit. p 525.
[19] Rafael de la Hoz. Op. Cit. p 525.
The Literary Editor of
The Independent, one of the UKÕs leading quality newspapers, reviewed Glitter
and Greed as Òfor once meriting that
tarnished epithet brilliant,Ó ÒenthrallingÓ and as Òthe product of hair- raising researchÓ -
due to the author having to be smuggled into major diamond mines after
De Beers tried to prevent her investigation. The whole review – and the chance of buying the book
in a copy that is discounted and custom-signed by the author – can be found on the web here.