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Social History of Medicine Advance Access originally published online on June 17, 2008
Social History of Medicine 2008 21(2):361-379; doi:10.1093/shm/hkn033
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for the Social History of Medicine. All rights reserved

Investigating ‘Community’ through a History of Responses to Asbestos-Related Disease in an Australian Industrial Region

Cecily Hunter* and Anthony D. LaMontagne {dagger}

* Dr Cecily Hunter, Centre for Health and Society, School of Population Health, University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia. E-mail: cehunter{at}unimelb.edu.au


  Abstract

The government of the State of Victoria has been slow to acknowledge the social costs of asbestos-related diseases (ARD) in the Latrobe Valley. Despite the emphasis on ‘community’ in the discipline of public health and in public health services since the 1970s, ARD was only recognised as a community-wide health problem because of the advocacy of people directly affected by it. An historical view of responses to ARD in a community established as an appendage to the publicly owned power industry and infused with an ethic of public service, shows that contests over the definition of ‘community’ lay at the heart of these responses. It also shows that such disputes did not arise only from the reluctance of authorities to acknowledge the problems resulting from the extensive use of asbestos in power stations. The paper highlights the political nature of the notion of ‘community’ and in doing so raises questions that have implications beyond its narrow regional focus.

Keywords: community; asbestos; occupational health; public health; social medicine

{dagger} Associate Professor Anthony D. LaMontagne, McCaughey Centre: VicHealth Centre for the Promotion of Mental Health and Social Wellbeing, School of Population Health, University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia. E-mail: alamonta{at}unimelb.edu.au


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