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Social History of Medicine 2003 16(3):419-436; doi:10.1093/shm/16.3.419
© 2003 by Society for the Social History of Medicine
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The Discovery of Mesothelioma on South Africa's Asbestos Fields

Jock McCulloch

School of Social Science and Planning, RMIT University-City Campus, GPO Box 2476V, Melbourne 3001, Australia. E-mail: jock.mcculloch{at}rmit.edu.au

The discovery of the link between asbestos and mesothelioma, one of the major occupational health finds of the twentieth century, is usually attributed to the South African-born pathologist, Chris Wagner. The process of that discovery was more complex than has generally been recognized. Most of Wagner's subjects had no occupational exposure, nor was the link between mesothelioma and asbestos one that Wagner made alone. Evidence that asbestos causes mesothelioma eventually destroyed the market for South African fibre; it also exposed South African scientists, including Wagner himself, to political pressure of a kind all too familiar to researchers working on asbestos-related disease (ARD).

Keywords: asbestos, mesothelioma, South Africa, mining, Dr J. C. Wagner, asbestosis


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